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LOITE RINGS IN EUROPE; 



OB, 



0keti:l)C0 of ^xavti 



IN 



france, belgium, switzerland, italy, austria, prussia, 
great britain, and ireland. 

With an Appendix, 



CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS ON EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND MEDICAL 

INSTITUTIONS. 



BY JOHN W. CORSON, M.D. 




NEW YORE:t- 

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
82 CLIFF STREET. 

1848. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and forty- eight, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 

of New York. 



t/ 



edicateli 



TO 



MY F A T H E E. 



PREFACE. 



The reasons for publishing, on the present occasion, are so 
much like those of other people who have written similar 
books, that, to prevent repetition, the author takes the liberty 
of referring for them to some other preface. One or two fea- 
tures in the work, however, seem to require a few words of 
explanation. It has been rather the result of accident than 
otherwise. 

When about to embark for Europe, on a professional tour, 
some two years since, he was unexpectedly solicited by friends, 
to whose kindness he had been previously indebted, to write a 
few traveling letters for a leading journal, in which they were 
interested. He consented to serve anonymously, and thus ap- 
peared the earlier part of this volume. 

Those most interested happened to be persons of strong re- 
Utrious feelings, and he was thus naturally led occasionally to 
express his more serious thoughts. Shielded by a convenient 
mask, on the other hand, each letter was a sort of confidential 
circular to certain friends in the secret. He indulged at will in 
detailing trifling personal adventures, as a relief to graver mat- 
ters, and felt little restraint upon innocent playfulness. These 
buoyant feelings were as balm to spirits before depressed by 
care and bereavement, and he rather courted them. 

Having thus begun, like some people in talking, he found it 
hard to stop. He journeyed farther, and wrote more than he 

A 



PREFACE. 



expected ; and a combination of circumstances induced him 
afterward to finish the series in a small volume. 

The free, gossiping style of the commencement was con- 
tinued from choice. It seemed the most natural. He noted 
every change of cloud or sunshine that came over him, to con- 
vey to others the sensations of traveling. Such things are com- 
monly read as substitutes for the exercise itself; and he treat- 
ed the reader as an intimate companion, telling hira of his joys 
and sorrows, not to be egotistical, but to make the illusion more 
complete, and carry him, as it -were, to the spot. He hopes 
such confidence will not be abused. The better to accomplish 
his purpose, he sometimes designedly '^loitered^\ over the merest 
trifles. Like a landscape painter, if you please, he tried to 
make the picture more truthful by interspersing, among greater 
objects, blades of grass, insects, pebbles, and creeping flowers. 

In addition, the writer has, from the first, firmly resolved to 
be good-natured. The peace interests of the world, and the 
softening of national prejudices, seem to require that the foibles 
of every people should be dwelt upon and reproved rather by 
their own countrymen than by strangers. We justly com- 
plained of certain foreigners, w^ho repaid our best hospitalities 
with libels on our political and social institutions. The writer 
prefers erring, if at all, on the side of charity. He is wdlling 
to forego the credit for patriotism gained by abusing our neigh- 
bors. He saw, every where, more to praise than to blame ; 
and, in looking at things on the bright side, he only followed 
the golden rule. 

Few are more liable to imposition, from interested parties, 
than travelers ; and it is possible that, with all the care taken, 
there may have crept in slight inaccuracies. 

With the advice of valued friends, a couple of lectures on 
European Charities and Poor, delivered while these sheets 
were passing through the press, and embodying materials gath- 
ered in attempting to execute a commission in behalf of a 



PREFACE. iii 



benevolent society, with some emendations, have been inserted, 
in an Appendix. The local allusions they contain are merely 
applications of general principles, important to common hu- 
manity. The letter on Foreign Hospitals and Schools of Med- 
icine explains itself. 

In excuse for some of the defects of the work, the writer 
may state, that higher obligations have made it throughout a 
secondary matter. More than a year or more than half the 
time spent abroad, was passed in close confinement among 
the hospitals of Paris, Vienna, and London. His tours were 
mostly but long vacations, and his " Loiterings" often neces- 
sarily brief He endeavored to make up for these disadvan- 
tages as well as he could, by striving to improve every hour 
possible in sight-seeing and traveling, in all weathers and at all 
seasons. Many portions have been hastily written after fa- 
tiguing journeys, days spent in professional toil, or during hours 
stolen from needed sleep. 

In conclusion, upon the subjects discussed, and all others, the 
author both yields and claims freedom of thought. He as- 
sumes no infalUbility, nor exemption from honorable criticism ; 
and simply desires, in return, that fairness and liberality which, 
in these pages, it has been his sincere desire to cultivate. 



Brooklyn, March, 1848. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 
Sea Weariness — Last Storm — Land, ho ! — Mouth of the Seine— Eemark- 

able Researches — Havre — Taking Portraits . . . . . 13 



CHAPTER n. 

New Quadruped — Normandy — Sudden Elevation — Rouen — Helps to 

Memory — Carnival 19 

♦ 
CHAPTER in. 

A French River — Things Rural — Humanity in a Blouse — Chateau of 
Rosny — Railway — Paris — First Impressions 23 

CHAPTER IV. 

Easter in Notre Dame — Relics — Church of the Royal Family — Funeral 
in the Madeleine — Wesleyan Chapel — The Oratoire . . . .27 

CHAPTER V. 

F^te du Roi — Imagination— Place de la Concorde — The Tuileries — 
Champs Elysees — Living Statue — Arch of Triumph — Louis Philippe 
—Fireworks — Pericles ......*.. 33 

CHAPTER VI. 
Palais Royal— Flight of Fancy— The Louvre • • . • .39 



vi CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Page 
Quartier Latin— Escape— Orleans— Jeanne d'Arc — Galvanizing History 

—The Loire— Tours— St. Martin— Amboise 42 

CHAPTER Vni. 

Escape from a Pastoral — Shepherdesses — Vineyards — Chateau of Che- 
nonceau — Blois — Salle des Etats-G6nereaux— Fontainbleau — Return . 49 

CHAPTER IX. 

A deep Subject — The Abattoirs — Hotel des Invalides — Chamber of 
Deputies — M. Lamartine — Chamber of Peers — Pere-la-Chaise . . 56 

CHAPTER X. 

Narrative Style — Illustrative Facts — Garden of Plants — Scientific Insti- 
tutions — Life in a Madhouse — Politics , . ~. . . .63 

CHAPTER XL 

Introduction—St. Cloud — Sevres— Versailles — Journey to Boulogne — 
Foggy Reception-^London^Evangelical Alliance . . . .71 

CHAPTER XII. 

Trying the Nerves— Dover — Influence of the Moon — Ostend — Ghent — 
Brussels — Bold Design — Waterloo — Trip to the Rhine^-Cologne . 77 

CHAPTER XIII. 

St. Ursula — Happy Meeting — Cathedral — The Rhine — Ehrenbreitstein 
— Legend of Lurlei — Home Feelings — Fair at Frankfort . . .83 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Speculation — Ariadne — Madame Rothschild— The Bergstrasse — Heidel- 
berg — Baden-Baden — " Conversation House " — Strasburg — Basle . 89 

CHAPTER XV. 

Styles of Traveling — Innocent Amusement — Basle Campagne — Lake 
Sempach — Arnold of Winkelried — Lucerne — Singular Tradition — 
Ascent of the Righi . . . . . . . . , .96 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Page 
Lake Lucerne — T ell's Chapel — Night Adventure — Tour in Oberland — 

The Wengern Alp . . . 104 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Interlachen — Knightly Feat — A Fair — Taking an Observation— Lake 
Thun — Bei'ne — A Wandering Journeyman — Neuchatel . . . 109 

CHAPTER XVin. 

Neuchdtel to Geneva — Savoy — Chamouny — Mer de Glace — A Failure 
— Alpine " Curiosities of Literature " — Mont Blanc from the Flegere 
—Chamois Chase with a Walking-Stick — The Tete Noire . .115 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Distant Beauty — The Vallais — St. Bernard — Ghillon — Lausanne — Lake 
Geneva — Revolution ....... ... 123 

CHAPTER XX. 

Lyons — Misty Visions— Sad Memorials— The Rhone— A\agnon — Ragged 
Escort — Palace of the Popes — The Inquisition . . • . . 130 

CHAPTER XXL 

Exuberance — Vaucluse — Nismes — Roman Antiquities — Pont du Gard — 
Marseilles — Marine Discovery — Bay of Genoa 135 

CHAPTER XXIL 

*< Fond Anticipation "^ — Genoa — Ancient Costume — Shadowy Reflections 
— Politics and Trade — Palaces — Chiesa Annunciata . . . .141 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Sea Retirement — Leghorn— Toleration — Civita Vecchia — A Dilemma — 
The Campagna — Rome . . • • • • • • • ^^^ 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Eoman Impressions— Pantheon— Airy Visions— Capitol— Dying Glad- 
iator—The Pope—" Taking Possession." . . ... . 150 



viii CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Page 
Romantic Weathei' — Coliseum by Moonlight — Suspicious Visitor — -Tra- 
jan's Column— The Forum — ^Arch of Titus — Santa Scala . . . 156 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

" Caught Napping " — Subterranean Celebration — St. Peter's — Sistine 
Chapel — The Vatican — Last Judgment — Raphael's Transfiguration — 
Baths of Dioclesian .......... 162 



CHAPTER XXVn. 

Adieu to a Breakfast — Italian Village — Papal States — Monk in a Mino- 
rity — Monte Cassino — Capua — Vesuvius — Skirmish with Lazzaroni . 168 

CHAPTER XXVIII. " 

Bay of Naples — Street Customs — Lazzaroni — " Gallant . Friend " — Vir- 
gil's Tomb— Grotto of Posilippo — Sibyl's Cave — Elysium — Pompeii . 174 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Neapolitan Ethics— Swiss Soldiers — Gastric Insurrection — Pisa — Lean- 
ing Tower — Duomo^Campo Santo — A Recitation .... 180 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Italian Railroads— Vetturini — " Effort in Public "—Tuscan People 

Florence — Powers' Greek Slave— -Ei)iscopalian Service . . .187 

CHAPTER XXXL 

Attack of Enthusiasm— Paintings— Pitti Palace— Memorials of Galileo 
— Adieu to Florence . . . . . . . ^ \ ^ ig^ 

CHAPTER XXXIL 
Crossing the Apennines — Sights not Seen— Bologna — San Petronio— St. 
Dominic —■ Monuments — University — Lady Professors — Leaning 
Towers . 198 



CONTENTS. is. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

rage 
Early Rising— Moonlight— Lombardy— The Po—Ferrara— Italian Poli- 
tics — Palazzo d'Este — Tasso's Prison . 203 

CHAPTER XXXIV. ' 

Dull Entertainment— Crossing the Po— Nervous AfFection—Rovi go- 
Padua— Perseverance— St. Anthony— Classical Discoveries . . 207 

^ CHAPTER XXXV. 
Poetry and Steam— Bridging the Sea— Venice— Piazza of St. Mark- 
Cathedral— Stealing a Patron— Doge's Palace— Council of Ten- 
Bridge of Sighs 212 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Sentimental Habits — Housetop Reflections — A Gondola — Grand Canal — 
Bridge of the Rialto— Trieste— Crossing the Julian Alps— Carniola— 
Styria • • 217 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
A Discovery — Locomotive Memorial — Gratz — Country Archduke — 
Iron— Smoke— Vienna by Snow-storm — Suburb City — Austrian Man- 
ners . 



222 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Street Lecture — " Declaring Intentions " — Austrian Government — Edu- 
cation — Policy — Italian Question — Emperor and Empress — St. Ste- 
phen's — Monument . . . 228 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Crossing the Danube — Olmutz — Lafayette's Prison — Primitive Bed — 
Prague— Ziska's Camp— Memorials of Huss— Synagogue— Palace of 
Wallenstein . . . . . . ... . . 234 

CHAPTER XL. 
A Sleigh-Ride— Culm — Saxony— Dresden— Gallery— Green Vaults- 
King and Queen— Leipsic — Poniatowski's Tomb— Society of Gustavus 
Adolphus — Lutzen . ^42 

A* 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Page 
Affair of the Heart— Halle— Theological Lecture— Magdeburg— Witten- 
burg — German Manners — Luther's Grave — His furnished Sitting- 
room .....•••••••• "'^° 

CHAPTER XLII. 

Berlin— Brandenburg Thor — Unter den Linden — Chamber of Art — King 
—Government — Prussian System of Education — Army . . . 256 

CHAPTER XLHL 

Grateful Wishes — Misty Recollections — Mecklenburg — Korner — Ham- 
burg — Hull — Route to London . 263 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Glimpses of London . . ... . - . . • 267 

CHAPTER XLV. 

A Chapter of Fragments — Case of Rheumatism — British Association — 
Oxford — Yoi-kshire Elections — Lake Windermere— Coach-ride . . 279 



CHAPTER XLVI. 
Meeting on a Bridge — Attractive Scenery — Edinburgh . . . ,287 

CHAPTER XLVn. 

Route to Glasgow — The Clyde — Loch Lomond — Rob Roy's Rock — 
Race after a Pony — Loch Katrine — Stirling Castle — Bannockburn . 291 

CHAPTER XLVni. 

Prison at Sea — Belfast — Politics in a Coach — Drogheda — Dublin — 
Phoenix Park— Trinity College .297 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

Wicklow Scenery — Vale of Ovoca — Jaunting Car— '• Meeting of the 
Waters" — The Seven Churches — King O'Toole — Curious Legends — 
Return to Liyernool — Sabbath at Sea .....* 300 



CONTENTS. xi 



APPENDIX. 

EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 

Lecture I. — Institutions for Children. 

Page 
Creches of Paris — Foundling Hospital — Children-Preservation-Insti- 

tutions of Germany — Swiss Hospital for Young Ci'etins — Beggars at 
Rome — Industrial Establishment of San Michele — Moiite Domini at 
Florence — Labor Schools of Aberdeen — Juvenile Pauperism in Edin- 
burgh — Ragged Schools of London — Letter from a Pupil — Orphan 
House at Halle — Herman Francke — Inferences — Robert Snow — 
Claims of Children 309 



Lecture II. — Adult Institutions. 

Lazzaroni at Naples-— Hotel of the Poor — Roman Dowiy Societies — 
Company of Mercy at Florence — Voluntary Workhouse of Vienna — 
Penny Savings' Bank at Berlin — German Poor — Silk Weavers of 
Lyons — French Poor-system since the First Revolution — Bureaux de 
Bienfaisance — Canaille of Paris — Poor-Economy of Belgium — Pauper 
Colonies of Holland — History of the English Poor-laws — Pauperism 
in Ireland — Famine — Soup Kitchens — Glasgow Night Asylum — Volun- 
tary System in Scotland — Charitable Pawning Establishments of 
France and Germany — Concluding Remarks — Poor-Association — 
Parks — Hospital — Private Charity — Plan of a Benevolent Pawning 
Institution . . . . • . • • . . . 337 



LETTER ON FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF 
MEDICINE. 

Hospitals of Paris — General Council — Bureau Central — Internes and 
Extemes — Sisters of Charity — Statistics — Hotel Dieu — Roux — Baron 
Louis — La Charite — Velpcau — Bouillaud — Hospital of St. Louis— 



xii CONTENTS. 



Page 
HOpital des Cliniques— La Pitie — M. Piorry — Necker Hospital — M. 

Trousseau — Civiale — Hopital des Enfans Malades — M. Guerin — The 
School of Medicine' — Faculty — Ecole Practique — Clamart — Pri- 
vate Courses — General Characteristics — Great Hospital at Vienna — 
Rokitansky — Advantages for Studying Pathology — Professor Skoda — 
Theories of the Sounds of the Chest — Wards for Teaching Auscul- 
tation and Percussion — Rosas — Opthalmic Department — School of 
Berlin Hospitals — Peculiarities of Practice — Schonlein — Baron 
Dieffenbach — Hospitals of London — Superiority in Surgery — English 
Practice — Edinburgh— Practical Advantages of the Dublin School 
— Excellencies — Expenses in the Different Cities — Recapitulation — 
Comparative Advantages — Conclusion ....... 373 



LOITEEIIGS II EUROPE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Sea Weariness — Last Storm — Land, ho ! — Mouth of the Seine — Eemarkable 
Researches — Havre — Taking Portraits. 

On a gloomy winter's morning at the commencement of 
'46 I waked on board the New- York packet-ship St. Nich- 
olas, more than two thirds of the way across the Atlantic. 
Who but the initiated can describe the sensation of intolerable 
weariness — that second sea-sickness in the shape of a sort of 
subdued salt-water hydrophobia — that is felt in the latter half of 
a long voyage ? Every source of amusement seemed exhausted. 
Some of us had practiced the wildest and the tamest ship gym- 
nastics ; others had desperately turned students, and perpe- 
trated barbarous French and frightful German, or pei'severingly 
worried the poor sailors in learning their alphabet; and several 
had conspired to torment an inoffensive piano in the cabin, by 
giving nautical concerts, whose vehemence astonished even the 
performers. 

Some allowance must, of course, be made for having one's 
imagination stirred by a boisterous winter passage like ours ; 
but, omitting the preparatory deadly loathings of sea-sickness — 
to be ** cabined and confined" for weeks or months— to gaze 



14 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. I. 



day after day on the same cheerless prospect of sky and water, 
varied only by clouds and tempests, till the chilly expanse seems 
fairly increasing in blueness — to sleep in fear of the floor, and 
to eat in dread of the affectionate flight of roast beef — seem 
almost too much for a peaceable endurance. I think I shall 
always, after this, have more charity for crimes and misdemean- 
ors at sea. It is enough to make people desperate. Instead of 
retaining all my school-boy indignation against the Spanish 
crew of Columbus, it now seems rather wonderful that they did 
not carry out their purpose of making him take Jonah's leap, 
and try protracted sea-bathing as the hydropathic cure for am- 
bition, instead of discovering our beautiful western world. 

► With one exception, it had rained or snowed every day of 
the passage. In the edge of the evening the wind increased, 
the clouds grew blacker, and on came our last and most teriific 
storm. I had often read of such things, but I confess the reality 
far surpassed all my former conceptions. There seemed some- 
thing ominous in the trumpet-voice of the captain giving orders 
amid the din of the tempest — the seamen hurrying in gangs 
about the decks, hastily furling the sails and dangling wildly 

^ among the slippeiy yards and rigging. The uproar increased, 
and as you timidly staggered toward some object for support, 
you felt the ship heaving, rolling, and plunging like a thing of 
life, contending with a merciless enemy ; and suddenly, with a 
booming crash, a sea flooded her decks — you looked hastily 
around to see if any were swept overboard, and you felt beneath 
your feet a recoiling tremor, that seemed to run through every 
panel and timber. You strove to look abroad, but all was im- 
penetrable darkness, relieved only by fitful flashes of lightning, 
and the foam of the angry waves ; you essayed to listen, and a 
continuous stunning roar, as of a hundred cataracts, added fear- 
fully to a scene that was enough to make the stoutest hearts 
to quail. Below, our ladies shrieked ; the most boisterous 
became thoughtful and sad ; and faces that a few hours be- 



Chap. I.] LOITERTNGS IN EUROPE. 15 

fore were wreathed in smiles, grew horror-stricken and pale. 
Death is terrible enough on the softest couch, and soothed by 
those we love; but the prospect of suddenly sinking far from 
friends — of gasping and buffeting with mountain waves — of hav- 
ing your Hmbs mangled by the shark, or your requiem sung by 
howling winds, and the sea-weed for a winding-sheet, has in it 
something peculiarly appalling. While the storm still raged, a 
little group might be seen in one part of the cabin, drinking in, 
with strange earnestness, the beautiful and consoling passages 
which, in a voice faltering with emotion, one of their number 
read from the ninety-first Psalm. 

Next day, toward evening, the wind abated, and the morning 
succeeding we were saluted with the welcome shout of" Land, 
ho!" We all rushed on deck in a tumult of joy. It was the 
dimly-seen headland on the English shore, termed the Start. 
As we glided along before a light breeze, the Channel became 
more thickly studded with sails. For the first time in our lives 
some of us had caught a glimpse of the land of our forefathers. 
Strange emotions were excited. It was the scene of a thousand 
incidents embalmed in story and in song. The very waters over 
which we were then being wafted seemed every where to call 
up interesting historical reminiscences. Across our path had 
once floEited the Spanish armada, with its mighty arms extend- 
ed for miles, as if to grasp the shore ; and just to the northward 
it had first encountered its intrepid enemy. A little farther 
west, two centuries previous, Blake and Tromp had, for three 
successive days, fought for the empire of the seas ; and away to 
the south, the sea, then so tranquil, had been dyed with the 
blood of the French and English. At length, we saw the blue 
outline of Cape La Heve and the sunny hills of Normandy. 
Every one seemed to have his special reason for being delight- 
ed. Our excellent Captain H. was about to complete his first 
voyage in our superb ship in only eighteen days ; the Baron D, 
and the rest of the French passengers, after an exile of years, 



16 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. I. 

Stood rapturously gazing on their own La helle France; lean- 
ing with enthusiasm over the bulwarks was the tall, slender 
form of an only son, traveling for health, and about to leave 
with a fresher cheek; beside him, with a gladdened visage, 
rested one vv^ho sought, by change of scene, to soothe a heart 
almost broken by bereavement ; and close at hand v/as a young 
adventurer, about to realize advantages in study and travel, for 
which he had despairingly toiled for years. The gently swell- 
ing sails, the bright waters, and all the splendid panorama be- 
fore us, were illumined, too, by one of the most glorious of 
earthly visions— a sunset at sea. As we looked eastward, the 
rich effulgence appeared resting as upon a mirror on the mouth 
of the silvery Seine, glistening from the chalky cliifs, and bathing 
in gold the winding shore ; and as we turned westward, the 
great centre of attraction seemed softening his rays with a ruby 
tint, and expanding his disc, as if to court a more intense gaze, 
and then tranquilly to melt away into the ocean ; and the gor- 
geous assemblage of clouds, steeped in violet, gold, and sun- 
beam, that gathered around, as if to do homage at his departure, 
appeared like the drapery of a brighter land than earth. 

The sea was thickly dotted with fishing-boats, and at length 
a clumsy craft, more respectable than the rest, hoisted the tri- 
colored flag, floated under our lee, and directly there clamber- 
ed up the side an aquatic curiosity, said to be a French pilot. 
He wore a peaked, glazed hat, and a short jacket, expanding 
downward like a diving-bell, covering the apex of a body re- 
sembling the little jolly-looking picture of St. Nicholas on our 
stained cabin windows, or, in sea phraseology, his latitude 
nearly equaled his longitude. 

The port of Havre can only be entered by ships during four 
hours of each tide, and we were forced to wait till morning, 
when we were towed in by a steamer. The entrance of the 
Seine is somewhat difficult, on account of the shiftincr-sands, 
and it was here that Sir Sidney Smith, in attempting to cut out 



Chap. I.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 17 



a French man-of-war, got entangled and left by the tide, and 
his ship, like a huge monster, stranding, was forced to yield to 
a few Lilliputian gun-boats. 

As we came alongside of the dock, there was a rush of por- 
ters vociferating the names of the hotels, and a scramble for 
our baggage that would have done credit to the Roman impe- 
rial amusement of throwing silver among a crowd, or the inva- 
sion of a North River steamboat. Directly, a tall gendarme, in 
a blue uniform, with a sword and mustache, touched his formi- 
dable military hat, pronounced the significant words, "Pass- 
ports, messieurs !" and walked off with our papers. When we 
went on shore, another important personage, who might have 
been mistaken for one of the light-fingered gentry, but for the 
circumstances, with that inimitable poHteness peculiar to a well- 
bred Frenchman, went through the deficate operation of search- 
ino- our pockets. There were also cool philosophical investiga- 
tions as to the quality of our linen, and the state of domestic 
affairs in our trunks generally, at the custom-house. 

There is naturally a strange sensation in passing suddenly 
into a country differing entirely from your own in language, 
customs, religion, government, or domestic habits ; and it is not 
to be wondered at that both European and American travelers 
should mutually have their prejudices shocked, and too readily 
form unfavorable conclusions respecting a people about whom 
the hasty tourist can know too little to sit as a rigorous judge. 
I happen to be a great admirer of the happy, well-meaning 
race of people known as the good-natured, and in my future 
peregrinations I have resolved, when allowable, always to pre- 
fer the sunny side of the picture. In conformity with these 
peaceable intentions, I was not disposed to abuse the good citi- 
zens for the faults of their ancestors, as I edged my way through 
streets a dozen or more feet wide, without the modern innova- 
tion of sidewalks. They were drained by a ditch in the mid- 
dle, lighted above by lamps suspended in the same central 



18 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. L 

position by chains from the opposite six or eight-story houses, 
and paved with stones that might pass for Norman antiquities. 

Havre is, on the v^^hole, an unprepossessing town to a stran- 
ger, belonging rather to the useful than the ornamental class. It 
contains, as most are probably aware, some thirty thousand in- 
habitants, and, from its American and cotton trade, its extensive 
excavated docks, and from its_ being the port for the principal 
manufacturing towns, it has been sometimes termed the Liver- 
pool of France. 

Toward evening we applied, according to custom, at the po- 
lice-office for provisional passports, till those we had presented 
should be returned to us in Paris. One feels rather queer in be- 
ing stared out of countenance while having his likeness taken by 
artists who (not being well paid for it) flatter so little. I feared 
that mine was alarmingly faithful, and so, without scanning it, 
hastily put it safely into my pocket. A youthful fellow-passen- 
ger, however, afterwards kindly obliged me with a glance at his, 
and I found that they had taken ah exact inventory of his flow- 
ing locks, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, and features generally. 
As illustrating their singular minuteness, I may mention that, 
for want of other amusement on ship, and perhaps to prepare 
for the continent, he had been cultivating the downy symptoms 
of a mustache ; and the passport described his beard by the use 
of a glowing French term usually applied to the birth of flow- 
ers. Shortly after we took the diligence, by the north bank of 
the Seine, for Rouen, 



Chap. II.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 19 



CHAPTER 11. 

New Qaadniped— Normandy— Sudden Elevation— Rouen— Helps to Mem- 
ory — Carnival. 

A DILIGENCE is a remarkable species of the genus vehicle. 
You may comprehend from books something of an Irish jaunt- 
ing-car, a Turkish araba, or a Hindoo palanquin ; but through 
such an imperfect medium, to get a clear idea of what the nat- 
urahst would term the more compHcated physical structure, the 
cavities, bones, muscles, and locomotive organs of a French dil- 
igence, is not quite so easy. Somewhere in the romantic re- 
gion of toy-books, you may possibly have faint childish recollec- 
tions of the picture of the traveling house of a great man set 
upon wheels. The French, in their refinement, have improved 
upon the idea, and divided the said building into apartments. 
It does not admit of seditious assemblages; and, while it leaves 
you to choose your rank, it goes upon the aristocratic and po- 
etic principle, that 

" Some are and must be greater than the rest." 

An intelligent American Indian, who lately visited Paris, in de- 
scribing a diligence to a friend in England, stated that it was a 
great animal that carried sixteen persons : three in the head, 
three in the breast, six in the body, and four in the tail, refer- 
ring, in order, to the banquette, coupe, interior, and rotonde. 
The four wheels answering to feet, it should, of course, be class- 
ed among the quadrupeds. Just imagine an ordinary Broad- 
way omnibus, somewhat lengthened, with the leather top and 
seat of a huge gig extending transversely across the roof, in 
front, for the banquette, and unequally divided below into three 
separate compartments, and you have the tamer representation 



20 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. II. 

of a deteriorated civilized citizen. Of the places above men- 
tioned, the coupe, or lower front, is the dearest, and the ro- 
tonde, or rear, the cheapest. This apparently unwieldy affair 
is usually drawn by five or six horses, with three abreast in front, 
at the rate of from seven to nine miles an hour. The horses 
are changed about once an hour in the short space of three or 
four minutes, and away you rattle over hill and dale to the con- 
stant crack of the whip. 

We passed through a gently undulating country, a little back 
from the river, thickly studded with villages and small towns. 
Many of the country seats were approached by avenues of close- 
ly-trimmed, military -looking trees. This portion of the country 
is particularly interesting to Englishmen and their descendants. 
Their language, institutions, and early history remind them of 
the Norman Conquest : here are still places bearing the names 
of leading families in England : here, too, are Falaise, the birth- 
place of William the Conqueror; the abbey at Caen, founded 
by Mathilda, his queen; the celebrated "Saucy Castle," of 
Chateau Galliard, built by Richard to annoy his rival, Philip 
Augustus ; the stone step of the church at Avranches, where 
Henry II. kneeled before the pope's legates to do penance for 
the murder of Becket; and many memorials of later events. 
But the modern spirit of invention, the genius of utter utility, is 
at work even here. The age of chivalry is past. Springing 
up amid the very Gothic ruins — the strong-holds of the chiefs 
of ancient renown, the places of battles and sieges — are cotton 
factories ! Apart from its historical associations, the traveler 
feels little disposed to doubt in advance the general assertion, 
that this is one of the most attractive and beautiful provinces of 
the kingdom. I happened to sit next to an intelligent passenger 
belonging to one of the villages, who kindly pointed out many 
I'emarkable objects, and afforded much useful information till 
twilight shrouded the view, when he mused a few moments ; 
then, as if unable to resti'ain the natural enthusiasm of a French- 



Chap. IL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 21 

man, lie suddenly volunteered, in a low, sweet tone, two or 
three stanzas of M(2 Normandie. 

It was his way of manifesting that love of country so merci- 
fully implanted by Providence every where in the human breast. 
Surely if the peasant of the bleak mountains of Switzerland, or 
the barren heaths of Scotland, can sing df his home, he of the 
sunny slopes, winding streams, and green meadows of Nor- 
mandy has reason to be contented and happy. 

Near midnight we were suddenly set dov/n in Rouen, amid 
a salute of emphatic invitations ; and by the time we came fairly 
to our senses, we found ourselves, with meek resignation, follow- 
ing the least suspicious-looking of the group through the wide 
gate-like entrance, and up what seemed the eight or tenth flight 
of a French hotel. The ascent, like all great undertakings, had 
its object and reward. We were permitted to view and enjoy 
the floor of little six-sided red tiles, the comfortable, flashy-cur- 
tained bed, folding- windows, the gilt ornaments, flowers, ex- 
panded mirrors, and other peculiar wonders of our French bed- 
rooms. 

Living at what is termed a table d'hote, as is customary in 
France generally, and paying only for the articles for which we 
called, we went upon the na,tural system of regulating our din- 
ner by the appetite and purse. The charges, on the whole, 
somewhat exceed those in our Atlantic cities. 

A party of four of us concluded to remain and examine the 
curiosities of this ancient capital of Normandy, and among others 
the far-famed cathedral. I confess that my first impression of 
this immense Gothic pile was not such as I had anticipated. 
Either the proximity of surrounding high dwelling-houses, or the 
lofty iron steeple, towering aloft from the rear more than four 
hundred feet, gave the front a comparatively lowly, unimposing 
appearance. Part of it having existed since the third century, 
time has imparted to the surface of the elaborately-carved stone 
■a worm-eaten, sombre appearance. But, like the Falls of Niag- 



22 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. II, 

ara, it seems to grow upon you. As you enter the door, and 
the eye stretches across the space of four hundred feet to the 
richly-decorated altar of the Virgin, it is bewilderedwith the 
ranges of tall columns, the lofty pointed arches, and the paint- 
ings, the ornamented side chapels, the choir, and immense aisles, 
dimly lighted by the rainbow hues of its hundred stained win- 
dows. You slowly advance, and muse thoughtfully on the 
memorials of all that is left of the mighty dead. The earliest 
annals of your own country are so recent as to require little ef- 
fort for your belief; but here as you gaze on statues, arrayed in 
the rud^ drapery of olden time, and touch with your hand the cold 
marble, your faith seems more confirmed in the dreamy legends 
of the elder world. There, with his son, lies Rollo, the convert- 
ed chief of the ravaging Northmen, and first duke of Norman- 
dy ; farther on are the remains of several English and Norman 
princes, and the " Lion Heart" of Richard. For a moment you 
^eem to live with the past. You think of Palestine— of Saladin, 
and the Saracens ; you conjure before you the opposing banners 
of the crescent and the cross; you see the prancing steeds and 
nodding helmets of the steel-clad Christian waiTiors, and fore- 
most of all their dauntless chief. Can it be that the heart, in- 
closed beneath the little marble tablet there, once beat high be- 
fore the walls of Acre 1 

One of the days we remained at Rouen happened to be the 
sabbath. We attended high mass at the cathedral in the morn- 
ing, and Protestant service in the evening. As we returned 
from the latter, we were rather startled at meeting, on a sabbath 
evening, a great many persons fantastically disguised in Turkish, 
Spanish, and other costumes, females in male apparel, all bend- 
ing their way to a grand masked ball. It was the festival cor- 
responding to the Carnival at Rome. 

Before we left, we paid a visit to the statue of Joan of Arc, 
in the spot where she was so cruelly burned. 

Taking advantage of a beautiful bright morning, I was also 



Chap. III.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 25 

enabled to greet the rising sun on the top of the overhanging 
hill, Mont St. Catherine. Here were the remains of old ditches 
and fortifications, the scene of many a deadly struggle when be- 
sieged by Henry IV. The good king, after the siege, kindly 
demolished them, at the request of the citizens, with the memo- 
rable words, " that he desired no fortress, but the hearts of his 
subjects." 

At length we started in the railway train for Paris. 



CHAPTER HI. 

A French River- — Things Rui-al — Humanity in a Blouse — Chateau of Rosny — 
Railway — Paris — First Impressions. 

The Seine is a thoroughly French river, full of beauties and 
full of capricious changes. Sometimes it flows as gently as the 
stream of a terrestrial paradise, restrained by the conservative 
banks into quite peaceable limits; and then, as below Q,uille- 
bceuf, with an aqueous outbreak, it suddenly expands to four or 
five times its former width. Occasionally it glides in a straight 
direction, as if, like a perspicuous speaker, it were coming to a 
point, and then with a circuit of miles, it returns to near the 
same spot, as though with national fondness it was determined 
on going back to Paris. Now it modestly courses along in a 
single channel, and anon, in showy Parisian taste, it takes a 
fancy to decorate itself with a range of little fairy islands. And 
then, to carry out the figure, even its tiny steamers seem to 
bow their pipes at the bridges with true French politeness. 

It is navigable to Rouen for vessels of two hundred and fifty 
tuns. 

The extensive cotton and woolen manufactories of Rouen 
and Elboeuf, respectively the Manchester and Leeds of France, 



24 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. III. 

give a considerable impulse to its trade. The valley of tbe 
Seine is perhaps on the average about a mile in width, bound- 
ed by well-cultivated slopes occasionally rising to higher emi- 
nences, which give indications of a chalk formation. Above 
Rouen, the level space on each side terminated by these parallel 
wavy acclivities reminded me of places and views in the valley 
of the Mohawk above Schenectady. The former is, perhaps, a 
little the wider stream ; but just imagine the huge barns and 
comfortable farmhouses on the banks of the latter removed ; 
level the fences, cut up the extensive corn-fields into little oblong 
squares of varied herbage, like the beds of a garden several 
times magnified, and over the whole scatter here and there 
clusters of little low-roofed stone cottages, and you have a fair 
representation of the scene described. Occasionally the group 
increases in size and respectability. Symptoms of gardens, or- 
namental trees, and a church appear, and it js pointed out as a 
village. To make the picture complete, however, you would 
be obliged to transform the sturdy Dutchmen of the Mohawk 
into a more slightly-made race of peasantry, and clothe them in 
a different costume. Judging from those I saw in Havre and 
Rouen, and the laborers in the fields along the route, I should 
think them to be below the average height of our rural popula- 
tion ; but then you scarcely see a narrow chest or a pale face 
among them ; and they seem to excel in cheerfulness, and to be, 
in fact, very lively specimens of humanity. Very generally they 
wear a light, cheap outside dress, made of blue cotton, in the 
form of a shirt, termed the blouse. Frequently, too, you are in- 
troduced to veritable wooden shoes. 

The track of the railway from Rouen to Paris, accompanied 
by the wires of a magnetic telegraph, generally runs close to 
the river, crosses it on bridges three times, and passes through 
two tunnels. This admirably-conducted line will soon be fin- 
ished to Havre. We went along quite leisurely for railway 
speed, making some twenty stoppages at the towns and villages. 



Chap. III.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 25 

The place that interested me most along the route was Rosny, 
the late residence of the Duchess de Berri, and distinguished 
as the birthplace and retreat of Sully, the celebrated minister and 
friend of Henry IV. The king, having overtaken this faithful 
servant on the road, after the victory of Ivry, desperately 
v^^ounded, and borne on a litter, fell on his .neck and embraced 
him, and passed the night at the chateau. Hard by is the forest 
where Sully generously sacrificed at one time timber to a large 
amount to pay his master's debts. The grounds and chateau 
still seem to retain something of the unostentatious simplicity 
that characterized the illustrious statesman. 

At length we passed a line of fortifications ; the houses began 
to thicken, and we were suddenly released, amid a multitude 
of strange sights and sounds, in the busy capital. There were 
carriages, with servants in splendid liveries ; easy-swinging 
hacks, like a large, old-fashioned physician's gig ; and carts, 
with immense wheels, drawn by two or three horses in single 
file, whose large, shaggy collars, and low heads, gave them, at 
a distance, the appearance of a cross of the bison ; files of sol- 
diers marching to the monotonous music of a drum; tidily- 
dressed females, in ordinary life, swarming the streets, without 
hats ; itinerant musicians, giving cheap concerts by machinery ; 
venders of little fancy wares, and rosy-cheeked flower girls ; 
woiTi-out veterans, hobbling along in the fierce-looking military 
chapeau, with the red ribbon of the legion of honor on the 
breast of the comfortable blue coat ; exquisites promenading 
the fashionable streets — all in a style peculiar to this city of 
cities. 

The first impressions of a stranger can scarcely be but favora- 
ble. Almost every object wears a lively charm. The streets are, 
indeed, with few exceptions, badly paved and drained, and so 
narrow that you are compelled to seek apartments as near the 
clouds as possible, to get the fresh air ; and the irregularly high 
houses are nearly all of a smoky, tawny hue outside ; but there 

B 



26 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. III. 

is so much of refined elegance in the architectural decorations, so 
much that you meet to admire in every walk, that you forget 
any faults in the picture. We are apt to receive exaggerated 
iippressions of the peculiarities of every people at a distance. 
There was much less of gaudiness, and far more of richness 
and neatness in the external aspect of things than I had antici- 
pated. A French lustre is, indeed, visible every where, but it 
is a brilliancy developed by the most exquisite taste. One might 
almost write a dissertation on the attractions of a Parisian shop- 
window. The artistic talent that, with such nice attention to 
perspective, arranges the mirrors and gilding, so elegantly folds 
the drapery, and so skillfully brings into play innumerable other 
devices, is, indeed, truly wonderful. This delicate sense of the 
beautiful seems to pervade the whole population. It is visible 
in their tastefully-adjusted dress, their easy, graceful carriage, 
and fascinating manners. With much justice, perhaps, it has 
been attributed to the effect produced by their constantly fre- 
quenting the public gardens, museums, and palaces— their fa- 
miliarity with the perfect forms embodied in painting and statu- 
ary, and the combined charms of nature and art, that in so en- 
lightened a spirit are here made freely accessible for the grati- 
fication and improvement of all ranks, from the peasant to the 
prince. 

Another feature that strikes you in your first walk is the easy 
cheerfulness depicted in every face you meet. There is more 
of philosophy in this than we dream. He who has taught the 
sun to shine, the flowers to bloom, and the birds to sing, doubt- 
less never intended that his creatures should be always sad. 
There is none of the " pride in the port, defiance in the eye," or 
melancholy of some of his Anglican neighbors about the true 
Parisian ; and nothing of the sharpened, anxious expression of 
our American victims of the money-fever you meet emerging 
fiL'om a ten minutes' lunch in the neighborhood of Wall-street. 
He seems every where leisurely enjoying himself. 



Chap. IV.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 27 



CHAPTER IV. . 

Easter in Notre Dame — Relics — Church of the Royal Family — Funeral in 
the Madeleine — Wesleyan Chapel — The Oratoire. 

My first visits to a few of the principal churches of Paris hap- 
pened to be on the occasion of important festivals, and as af- 
fording, in connection, an imperfect glance at some of the 
predominating religious peculiarities of the people, the notes 
of some of them are given together. It is perhaps scarcely 
necessary for the writer in advance to say, in courtesy and 
honest frankness, that they are the impressions of a decided 
Protestant. 

Very early on Easter morning, in company with an immense 
crowd, I edged my way into the venerable Cathedral of Notre 
Dame. Near the door was a marble basin, containing holy 
water, and a person standing near it with a brush to sprinkle 
those who passed. The galleries, and the greater part of the 
immense edifice, were nearly filled with a variously occupied 
throng. The more devout, on arriving, kneeled, crossed them- 
selves, and, with upturned eyes, seemed reverently to whisper 
a first prayer. Others, having apparently finished their course 
of devotion, were constantly retiring. Spectators were bend- 
ing eagerly over the railing, as at some curious show, and 
priests in their vestments, and little boys in white, were solemnly 
moving here and there. As in all the French Catholic church- 
es, even the most magnificent I have yet seen, the whole au- 
dience were seated upon innumerable rustic, split-bottomed 
chairs, most thickly clustered near the centre, for the use of 
which the occupants paid two or three sous each time. With 



28 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. IV. 

little or no distinction, all classes seem promiscuously mingled. 
By the side of the palsied matron, bowed a gentle girl ; farther 
on, in her clean white apron and hood was a sister of charity, 
and close to the fine lady and gentleman worshiped, in more 
homely attire, the plain artisan. A large company of priests 
appeared to take the lead in chanting the forms of the mass, 
and the confused sound of hundreds of untrained voices from 
the assembly, who joined them in a kind of half-singing, affected 
tone, seemed somewhat harsh and monotonous to the unaccus- 
tomed. But this was sometimes relieved by a very sweet strain 
from some choice youthful performers, and the notes of a pow- 
erful organ. Then came the tinkling of the little bell, and the 
swinging of the silver censer. As the Host was elevated, every 
head was lowly bowed. But the most imposing part of the 
ceremony immediately followed. AiTayed in robes covered 
with gold embroidery, appeared a long train of priests and at- 
tendants, bearing aloft the sacred emblems, slowly and solemnly 
moving down the passage opened in the centre, and making an 
extensive circuit round the sides of the church. Near the close 
of the procession walked the venerable Archbishop of Paris, 
clad in still more gorgeous vestments, and wearing a very lofty 
cap — such as we sometimes see in the pictures of Catholic 
saints. Near the door, I noticed, posted up, what seemed to be 
a kind of annual charge or announcement of the archbishop, 
in French, from which I was subsequently enabled to make the 
following extract : — 

" Sunday the 5th of April, at the termination of the grand 
mass, which commences at nine o'clock, the archbishop will 
transfer, solemnly, from the sacristy of the altar destined to re- 
ceive them, the relics of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
namely, a piece of the true cross, the holy crown of thorns, and 
the holy nail. The archbishop will accord to the faithful who 
assist at the procession, and to those who, during the holy week, 
come to venerate these relics, and recite five times pater and 



Chap. IV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 29 

— - — ■ — I «' 

five times ave, with act of contrition, forty days of indulgence 
each time." 

I had witnessed the ceremony of kissing the wood of the true 
cross a few days before, at the anniversary of a Catholic benev- 
olent society, at which the receptacles for the contributions were 
held by several ladies of rank and a Polish princess. Yet the 
French are far from uniform in their belief of these things. 

I did not stay to hear the sermon at Notre Dame, having 
listened to discourses of the kind before. They are delivered 
extempore from a little plain pulpit in the centre, usually in the 
style of somewhat earnest moral lectures, without much decla- 
rflation or violent gesture. The preacher frequently changes 
his position — standing, sitting, or leaning familiarly over the 
desk, as suits his convenience or inclination. 

This very ancient pile is situated on the south edge of an 
island in the Seine, which formerly contained the whole city. 
It is in the severe Gothic style, with two huge square towers 
in front, and can not compare in architectural beauty with that 
of RoUen. Yet some of the antique bas-reliefs within are quite 
interesting, and the two circular stained windows of some thirty 
feet in diameter in the transepts are very fine. 

It will be remembered that in Notre Dame, during the 
frenzy of the Revolution, took place the impious and obscene 
ceremony of the installation of a courtesan as the goddess of 
reason. A star wrought in the marble floor indicates the spot 
where Napoleon, in presence of Pope Pius VII., and a brilliant 
concourse, with his own hands, placed the imperi'al crown upon 
the brows of himself and Josephine in 1804, and the magnifi- 
cent robes worn by these illustrious personages on that occasion 
are still exhibited. 

After Protestant worship in the afternoon, I went to St. Roch, 
in the Rue St. Honore, the church at present patronized by the 
queen and royal family. Though, in comparison with many 
others, it is plain in its architecture, yet it is said to be the rich- 



30 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. IV. 

est in Paris. It is celebrated for its music, and on grand occa- 
sions some of the first professional and opera singers are en- 
gaged. Soldiers in uniform were interspersed through the 
crowd, apparently to keep order. In a pause in the services 
the immense organ played till the vaulted roof appeared fairly 
to tremble ; and the deep bass notes seemed like the reverbera- 
tions of half-suppressed thunder. They yielded to the flute-like 
cadences of a lovely duetto. Then, from an invisible source, 
there stole on the ear the plaintive, silvery notes of one of the 
sweetest solos to which I ever listened. It seemed like the voice 
of a pure spirit interceding for the sins of the throng below. 
Now, as if overcome with its own impassioned tenderness, it 
grew fainter and fainter ; and again, as with increasing faith, it 
rose til], as soothingly as the last thrillings of a wind-harp, it was 
gently hushed. In a gladder strain burst forth the mingled 
warblings of a dozen voices. For a moment I was fairly car- 
ried away with emotion. I thought of the songs of the re- 
deemed in a happier land. But a single glance at what, to one 
educated in a different faith, seemed very strange associations 
around, speedily dissipated the charm. 

Sauntering along the Boulevards olie day, I came in front 
of the beautiful Madeleine. The gigantic bronze doors were 
hung with black cloth, and I quietly entered. The wax-lights 
burning, the coffin in the centre, the priests gesticulating and 
praying for the dead, and the chanting of the mournful dirge 
told too well the nature of the sad ceremony. This is a very 
singular edifice, both in its history and construction. Com- 
menced at an early period by Louis XV., the work was sus- 
pended at the Revolution, remodeled by Napoleon for the erec- 
tion of a temple of glory in honor of the grand army, changed 
again to its original purpose by Louis XVIIL, and finally com- 
pleted by Louis Philippe, The plan of the building is said to 
have been taken fi'om a heathen temple, and it certainly has 
little of the appearance of a Christian church. Yet there is 



Chap. IV.] LOITBRINGS IN EUROPE. 31 

something exceedingly imposing in its external aspect. The 
more you gaze on it the more you are pleased. Without dome, 
tower, or side windows, it stands on an elevated base, majestic- 
ally supported on every side by a very lofty range of Corinth- 
ian columns. And the colossal statues of about as many saints 
in the intermediate niches in the walls, gind the magnificent 
alto-relievo of the Savior and Mary Magdalene in the southern 
pediment, form the details of the picture. Within are marble, 
gilding, and splendid paintings. The first view really is so gor- 
geons that it takes away somewhat of that sense of solemnity 
that we naturally associate with a church. Four large domes, 
leading up to as many circular sky-lights, ornamented with ele- 
gant paneling, seemed covered with gold. The composition of 
the historical picture of the progress of Christianity, over the 
altar, and the group in marble, representing Mary Magdalene 
borne by angels to heaven, are superb. 

Close to the Madeleine, as you walk down the right-hand 
side of the Rue Royale, you notice the inscription " Wesleyan 
Chapel." You enter. They are singing in your native tongue, 
an air that you have heard in many a worshiping assembly far 
away. A venerable minister with white locks is peering through 
his glasses. Presently, in a pleasing, earnest manner, he en- 
forces some leading religious truth. When service is over, you 
step forward perhaps, and, with the slightest introduction, you 
receive a cordial greeting. You have been listening to the 
Rev. Mr. Toase. 

Some twenty-four missionaries, including one or two in 
French-Switzerland, are now laboring successfully among the 
French population, under the auspices of the excellent Wes- 
leyan Missionary Society of London. 

Berhaps the reader will allow me, in fancy, familiarly to take 
his arm, and continue the walk down the Rue Royale, and, 
turning to the left, down the Rue St. Honore to go a little be- 
yond the Palais Royal to a massive church, which some one 



^ LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. IV. 

politely tells us is the Oratoire. We are not far from the tower 
of the old church whose bell tolled the fatal signal for the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew, and the window in the Louvre from 
which Charles IX. fired upon the hunted Huguenots. Too 
much occupied with thrilling memories, we stap not to admire 
the exterior, or count its pillars. We enter, and are courteous- 
ly seated. Having been changed from a Catholic to a Protest- 
ant place of worship in the time of Napoleon, all its pictures, 
and showy ornaments inside have been removed. A sedate- 
looking minister, thickly set, more than middle-aged, with a 
massive forehead and dark features, enters the desk. He 
wears a plain black gown. A veiy earnest prayer is offered.- 
How touching and expressive is the use of the second person 
singular in French in addressing the Deity ! It is the very form 
of speech only permitted in the most intimate and sacred rela- 
tions of life. ~ 

Every one appears furnished with a book having the French 
hymns on one side and the music on the other, and almost ev- 
ery voice in the entire assembly seems to join in full and sweet 
harmony, assisted only by an organ. 

The sermon is extempore, glowing, chaste, and evangelical. 
Toward the end, the speaker becomes quite eloquent and im- 
passioned, and uses considerable expressive gesture. 

We have been at the head-quarters of the National Protest- 
ant Church, listening to Frederic Monod. He and his brother, 
Adolphe Monod, are the great champions of the evangelical 
party in France. 

In theory no country in Europe has more religious freedom. 
The last revolution finished the work of the first and made the 
various sects equal in the eyes of the law. Catholic, Protestant, 
and Jewish teachers were alike to be salaried by the state. 
Still, however, the local magistrates in the provinces, under 
false pretexts, occasionally persecute. 

The Protestants of France are variously estimated at from 



Chap. V.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 33 

one and a half to two millions, with seven hundred and ten 
pastors paid by the government, of whom two hundred and 
forty are Lutherans. The public expense last year for Protest- 
ant worship was 1,250,000 francs. More than one half of the 
French Protestant clergy have latterly become evangelical. 
The rest are rationalists. The Duchess of Orleans, mother of 
the heir to the throne, the Duchess d'Aumale, fifteen peers, and 
twenty of the late deputies are enumerated as professors of the 
reformed faith, and M. Guizot is so nominally. About two 
hundred colporteurs in the dress of the peasantry, and on foot, 
are engaged in distributing the Scriptures and religious teaching, 
under the patronage of excellent societies in Paris and Geneva, 
aided by benevolent individuals or organizations in connection 
with various religious bodies in Great Britain and America. 



CHAPTER V. 

F6te du Roi — Imagination — Place de la Concorde — The Tuileries — Champs 
Elysies — Living Statue — Arch of Triumph — Louis Philippe — Fireworks — 
Pericles. 

The sun of the first of May rose upon the dome of the Inva- 
lides, and the winding Seine, as brightly as the famed one of 
Austerlitz. Soon the drums beat to arms, and files of the 
National Guard were streaming along the streets. All Paris 
was in motion. Was there to be another revolution] or a 
review of the troops in the Champ de Mars in presence of the 
Grand Turk 1 or the ceremony of welcoming Spring, by crown- 
ing, with a wreath of flowers, a gentle maiden ] Neither. The 
Emperor of China is said to encourage agriculture by holding 
the plough in great state once a-year, and the kings of France 
have an ancient custom of doing what, in the end, perhaps 



34 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. V. 

amounts to much the same thing, by giving annually a grand 
holyday, or Fete du Roi, as it is termed, on which they show- 
that they have been duly patronizing the products of that most 
useful instrument, by publicly exhibiting their goodly persons. 
The citizen-king then v\^as about to have an interview with his 
excitable subjects. 

As the day advanced, the press at the more attractive points 
was so great that it became a debatable question, w^hether it 
were longer justifiable for diminutive persons or invalids to 
appear. About noon a small detachment of friends, among 
whom I ranked as only a private, formed themselves in column, 
and succeeded in gallantly penetrating as far as head-quarters 
in the Champs Elysees. 

I must now beg the reader, who in fancy has accompanied us 
thus far, to go with me to some lofty point of observation to 
reconnoitre the field. Here we are, after a few minutes' walk, 
in an open square space, beautifully laid out, embellished here 
and there with groups in marble — personifying the principal 
cities of France — high bronze columns, and a splendid fountain 
at each end, gushing up amid sea-gods, nereids, and dolphins ; 
and the whole, as it were, forming a continuation between two 
parks. It is the Place de la Concorde, formerly the Place de 
la Revolution. 

Now, either by an active effort of the imagination or mes- 
meric clairvoyance, please seat yourself on the top of the obelisk 
of Luxor, that you see standing in the centre. There — steady 
— hold fast. You are at an elevation of some eighty feet. 
What a magnificent prospect ! Here, in the heart of Paris, 
covering the whole north bank of the Seine for about two miles, 
is a wide space, occupied with a continuous range of public 
pleasure-grounds, bounded at one end by the Palace of the 
Tuileries, and the other by the Arch of Triumph, ornamented 
with shady groves of lime, chestnut, and elm, with leaves just 
expanding in the luxuriance of spring, sunny spots, marble 



Chap. V.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 35 



Statues, parterres of flowers, murmuring fountains, terraced 
walks, and green avenues, all mingled with delightful effect. 

Eastward, including some sixty acres, between you and the 
palace, is the Garden of the Tuileries; westward, the more ex- 
tensive Champs Elysees ; northward, the Palace, hotels of the 
Rue Rivoli, while just opposite you, on the* same side, through a 
short, wide avenue, is a full view of the front of the Madeleine; 
to the south again, without any edifice or obstacle to obstruct the 
prospect, flows the silvery Seine, spanned by light and beautiful 
bridges; and just on the opposite bank, at a corresponding dis- 
tance from the Madeleine, is the Chamber of Deputies, with the 
Hospital of the Invalides in the rear, with its grounds running 
down to the river on one side, and on the other the Palace of 
the Legion of Honor, and the beautiful Palais d'Orsay, built by 
Napoleon for his son. 

Please examine, also, for a moment, the lofty pedestal upon 
which, in fancy at least, you are supported as a respectable 
living statue. You perceive it is a square, tapering column. 
You have occupied no common seat. It was the magnificent 
present of Mehemet Ali to the French government. Composed 
of a single block of red syenite, it required the labors of eight 
hundred men, for three months, under a burning sun, to remove 
it to the Nile. The curious figures of birdSj circles, and lines 
which you see upon its sides were worked more than thirty 
centuries before you were born, to commemorate the deeds of 
Sesostris. It is planted, too, in the centre of a place that has 
been moistened with the blood of Louis XVI., Marie Antoi- 
nette, the Duke of Orleans, the eloquent leaders of the Gironde, 
Madame Roland, and nearly three thousand of the more illus- 
trious victims of the Revolution. Perhaps it is well thus with 
the associations of a primeval age to relieve somewhat the bur- 
den of sad reminiscences that cling to this fatal spot. But, pos- 
sibly, you are fatigued, and it is time to descend. 

On reachiijg the ground, you find that the groves, avenues, 



36 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. V. 

arid open spaces are so arranged as, in whatever direction you 
turn, to bring into view some fine structure, and those corre- 
sponding to the four points of the compass are the church, the 
legislative chamber, the palace, and the monumental arch be- 
fore mentioned. From what single point in the whole world 
besides can you see so many splendid and beautiful things ] 

And now, to get a still better idea of some portions of the 
field, we will crowd our way through the masses up the broad 
avenue through the centre of the Champs Elysees westward, to 
the. triumphal arch that we see standing out so boldly in the dis- 
tance. 

Here we are, after quite a walk, gazing at the arched pile 
towering a hundred and fifty feet above us, covered with bas- 
reliefs and colossal groups and figures in stone, representing 
noted victories, with the names of triumphs and generals in- 
numerable inscribed upon the stone. 

This great work was commenced by Napoleon, and finished, 
as usual, by Louis Philippe. Let us ascend to the elevated 
platform on the top, by the winding staircase within. What a 
splendid panorama is before us ! You see the whole city, ly- 
ing, as it were, in a basin, of which you are upon the highest 
elevation, surrounded by the neighboring hills, with the Seine 
winding through the centre, fi-om east to west, while the space 
through which we have just passed appears a verdant oblong 
square running eastward along its left bank. In the distance 
before are seen peering up the tov^^ers of Notre Dame and the 
dome of the Pantheon. 

Let us descend and study the people, by watching tjieir 
amusements. 

To return to the description : In that part of the Champs 
Elysees nearest the river, in the open spots among the trees, 
there are several airy structures for pictorial exhibitions, cafes, 
and various diversions. This was the great centre of the ex- 
citement for most of the time. Here was elected a temporary 



Chap. V.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 37 



theatre, and from the occasional reports of musketry within, I 
supposed there was some martial or tragic performance. Then 
there were stands for selling all kinds of refreshments and small 
wares, conveniences for innumerable games, flying horses, and 
swings suspended in air, monsters just caught, shows of various 
descriptions, with bands of tawdry-clad miisicians, and persons 
in front of the tents, playing most ludicrous antics, and shoutmg 
at the top of their voices, to decoy those who passed— all form- 
ing the strangest scene imaginable. 

The most amusing thing to me was a popular lecture on rheu- 
matism, probably one of a miscellaneous series, delivered, by a 
charlatan, in connection with the sale of a wonderful medicine. 
Our priest of ^sculapius was a fierce-looking man, about fifty 
years of age, dressed somewhat in the Turkish style, and wear- 
ing a most respectable beard. His traveling estabhshment 
consisted of two carriages and four musicians. The latter 
would play a few minutes, when our hero would rise, adjust 
himself with becoming dignity, and beckon silence ; and then 
there came such a flow of subUmated learning, so many happy 
hits, and such a stjain of real, natural eloquence, that, after all, 
it was not strange that he succeeded. 

Near sunset we moved onward with the masses till we came 
in front of the Palace of the Tuileries. As you approach, the 
view of the front, on account of its gi'eat width and tun'eted 
pavihons, is very grand. It is in the style of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, having been built principally by Catherine de Medicis. 
It will be recollected that it was in attempting to defend this 
place that the Swiss guards were so fearfully massacred on the 
memorable 10th of August, 1792. Over the passage, under the 
middle pavilion, there is a balcony. To this the eyes of the 
vast multitude were intently directed. At length the door 
opened, and the king stepped forward, raised his hat, and cour- 
teously and repeatedly bowed. For the first time in my life I 
heard the celebrated cry of " Vive le roi," and from an immense 



38 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. V. 

orchestra, placed in front, burst forth the Marseillaise, followed 
by the Parisienne. The king and queen kept saluting the as- 
semblage continually; and his grandson, the Count de Paris, a 
sprightly lad of some eight years, who is heir to the throne, for- 
getting to raise his cap, the king turned and reminded him of it 
by a gentle touch of the hand. He looked exceedingly well, 
being, as most are aware, of a medium height, rather full fig- 
ure and face, with an easy, dignified bearing, and still appearing 
to 7'etain considerable of the vigor of a green old age. The 
attempt upon his life, by Le Compte, just previous, added inter- 
est to the occasion. 

As it grew dark there was the most brilliant exhibition of 
fireworks along the Seine that I ever witnessed. Rockets, 
stars, suns, and figures of every hue mingled in the air in a 
thousand coruscations. 

Returning homeward, we passed near the gate a beautiful 
marble statue of Pericles, and I could not help thinking that 
the wily Greek, who was so fond of embellishing his native city, 
and flattering the Athenians with expensive amusements, had 
some very successful imitators. 



Chap. VL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 39 



CHAPTER VI. 

Palais Eoyal— Flight of Fancy — The Louvre. 

Facing the Rue St. Honore is the imposing front of the 
Palais Royal. This far-famed place, so dear to the French- 
man, is to Paris what Paris is to France ; and a decree of ban- 
ishment from its inclosure would be quite as grievous to the 
citizens as that by Napoleon was to poor Madame de Stael. 
They have named a portion of their public grounds the Elysian 
Fields ; but if you were to ask where the real Elysium was, you 
would probably be shown farther east, to a garden inclosed by 
a palace. It is indeed as romantic a spot as any of which the 
old poets dreamed ; nor is it wonderful that a people consti- | 

tuted as the French are should cling to it with strange affec- 
tion. There are several causes for this. Every one has felt the 
pecuHar sensation of satisfaction with himself and all the world 
which steals over even the previously anxious man just after a 
leisurely, comfortable dinner. This event usually occurs with 
the Parisian from four to six o'clock. He is the least solitary 
in his habits of any of his species. In fact he is perfectly gre- 
garious. He dines with a throng at a restaurant, and, after this, 
if he can possibly afford it, he throws aside all care and business, 
and spends the rest of the day with his friends or family in some 
public place of recreation. Among the most frequented of 
these, in the summer evenings, is that we have mentioned. 
Fancy the good citizens of New- York to be thus, from educa- 
tion, gradually weaned from their hearths, and the Park con- 
verted, for their entertainment, into a square instead of a tri- 
angle, and the City Hall removed ft-qm the centre and expanded 
into a magnificent edifice completely surrounding the whole, so 
as to afford a shelter from the chilling wind, and the noise of the 



40 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VI. 

neighboring streets ; remove the fountain to the middle, and 
place here and there among the trees a statue and beds of 
flowers; furnish it with free seats, a large number of easy 
chairs, and the journals of the day to be rented for the merest 
trifle ; tastefully arrange behind the pretty row of columns ex- 
tending the whole way round the finest jewelers' establishments 
and fancy shops in Broadway, and fill a portion of them with 
the more showy and elegant curiosities (ladies included) exhib- 
ited at the Fair of the American Institute ; illuminate it with 
hundreds of dazzling lights ; make it the cherished place of 
fri-fendly greetings, and the scene of thrilling events in the his- 
tory of the struggles for freedom, and you have the best ex- 
planation we can devise in the shape of an imaginary plan of a 
republican Palais Royal. I shall never forget a moonlight walk 
in this enchanting place. Hundreds were dreamily basking in 
the summer air : some, with the genial sky for a canopy, in the 
oriental spirit of contentment, were sipping a tiny cup of coiFee, 
or an ice ; others gathered in little circles, in sweet, low tones, 
were exchanging respectful or affectionate civilities in the most 
polished of languages, while many, like the insects that flit from 
flower to flower, were gracefully roaming in search of the varied 
beauties of the fairy scene. To one group at least, it was a de- 
lightful, unexpected reunion in a strange land of long parted 
friends, the rest of whom, should they ever glance at this, may 
sympathize with me in treasuring its remembrance with pecu- 
liar interest. 

Having been built originally for the princely Cardinal Riche- 
lieu, the Palais Royal was aftei'ward given as a marriage 
present by Louis XIV. to the Duke of Orleans. The father 
of Louis Philippe, its present owner, having become involved, 
had shops fitted up in the style we see them now, and thus real- 
ized a large revenue. 

It was a popular rendezvous iii both Revolutions. Here 
Camille Desmoulins first harangued the mob, pistol in hand ; 



Chap.VL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 41 

and here met the Jacobins, the Girondists, and other political 
clubs. The interior of the palace and the paintings, unfortu- 
nately, are only open on sabbaths, to the practical exclusion of 
the more conscientious of our countrymen. 

Meeting an American friend one day, who complained of 
being somewhat fatigued, I ventured to^ inquire the cause. 
" Oh," said he, " I have been seeing about three miles of pic- 
tures." He had been at the Louvre. This very ancient resi- 
dence of kings, now converted into a palace of the fine arts, is 
near that last desJa-ibed, and extends along the Seine to the 
Tuileries. Besides the marine museum and those of antiqui- 
ties and sculpture, it contains, as is generally known, one of the 
largest and finest collections of paintings in the world. Nearly 
equally divided among the French, Flemish, German, and Italian 
schools are some fourteen hundred pictures, together with four 
hundred and fifty in the Spanish gallery. There are La Belle 
Jardiniere by Raphael, gems by Guido and Salvator Rosa, 
many choice specimens from the pencil of Rubens, deep-toned 
religious pictures from Murillo and Morales, and other master- 
pieces from the old painters, enough to turn the head of a con- 
noisseur. The works of living artists are only admitted tempo- 
rarily for a few weeks at an annual exhibition. This was open 
at my first visit. If an inhabitant of another world had wished 
to have sought some spot where, in the shortest time, he could 
have learned the most about this, he could have hoped for no 
better opportunity than to have ranged through the Louvre 
on this occasion. It told of the living and the dead. In the 
galleries of the old paintings were the pale faces of the artists, 
male and female, sometimes lighted up with th6 fire of genius, 
as they tried to catch the spirit, and copy the works of the great 
mas,ters, while hundreds of every rank were flocking as to a fes- 
tival to see the productions newly exposed. Every earthly 
scene, and every form of human bliss or suffering were there 
delineated ; variously arranged were the peaceful cottage, and 



42 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VII. 

the storm-tossed ocean, the angelic face of infancy, or fond ones 
plighting at the altar, and the foaming chargers, the frenzied 
visages, the bleeding wounded, and the trampled dead of one 
of Horace Vernet's battle-pieces, and countless others, all 
vividly true to life. Death was there in every form. A child 
was expiring in its mother's arms; the beautiful Princess 
Lamballe, all pale, was fainting in the midst of her assassins; 
a lost one was sinking in the flood; Cleopatra was slumbering 
with the poisonous asp upon her arm ; and then you recognized 
the haggard face of the imperial exile of St. Helena ; by his bed 
were the sword and the green surtout, and you almost fancied 
you could hear from those pallid lips the low death-murmur, 
** Tete d'Armee." 



CHAPTER Vn. 

Latin Quarter — Escape — Orleans — Jeanne d'Arc — -Galvanizing History — The 
Loire — Tours — St. Martin — Amboise. 

Surely if we are ever prepared to appreciate the goodness 
of Providence in bestowing breezy hills, glad streams, and 
flower-scented fields, it is after an imprisonment in a densely- 
populated city. To be near the hospitals and schools, I had 
taken up my abode not far from the Sorbonne, in one of the 
oldest and closest parts of Paris, which, from its being the seat 
of the French Institute, the colleges, and various institutions 
of theology, law, and medicine, as well as the residence of sev- 
eral thousand students and literary characters, great and small, 
is jestingly or seriously known in common parlance as the Quar^ 
tier Latin. I fancy that it must have been on this classic ground 



Chap. VII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 43 



that the word " ennui" was invented. I became a victim. All 
the attempts of the people in the streets to be as uproarious 
as the outside barbarians were insufficient to break the spell. 
The early showers and delightful changes of spring were 
now past. Every thing was going on in a state of utter 
regularity. The sun rose in my window every fine mormng 
over precisely the same smoky pile of chimneys ; the dome of 
the Pantheon, like all great things, was growing rather tame 
from familiarity; the statue of Henry IV. on Pont Neuf re- 
mained in statu quo ; the streets were as narrow, the pavements 
as intolerable, and the shops as tasteful as they were the week 
previous ; the patients in Hotel Dieu and La Charite were very 
similar ; and the J^ecture-rooms seemed as crowded, the profes- 
sors as profound, and their followers with their note-books look- 
ed as knowing and wistful as ever. Either from too presump- 
tuous exposure to so much learning, sudden change from an 
active to a sedentary life, or some other cause, my unpleasant 
feelings amounted at length to decided indisposition. I used 
languidly to saunter into the adjacent garden of the Luxem- 
bourg, and bare my feverish brow to court a little fleeting 
breath, that sometimes came laden with the perfume of the 
orange-trees, and that would have grown to a breeze but for 
the sun-ounding walls of houses. In the midst of a throng of 
strange faces I felt lonely, grew sentimental, and in a deep rev- 
ery dreamed, fondly dreamed of home and absent friends. I 
fairly envied the unconscious happiness of the children that in 
noisome glee were playing in the shade of the trees. Artificial 
as the place was, it reminded me of freedom. I longed for 
some spot where the flowers grew wild; and, like a bn'd let 
loose, I might sport with the gentle south wind, and gaze at 
will on the prospect of the azure sky, fringed only by the gteen 

earth. 

To my gi-eat delight, I had the good fortune to meet a very 
dear early friend, who had just recovered from a dangerous ill- 



44 LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VII. 

ness in London, and I gladly embraced the proposition of an 
excursion for our health. So away we flew on the wings of 
steam, or, to speak less poetically, upon the Paris and Orleans 
railroad, for the sunny south. Ascending the right bank of the 
Seine, we caught glimpses of many charming country-seats ; and 
as the engine stopped now and then, as if for breath, we had 
views of several pretty villages, among which was Ablon, the 
seat of one of the three churches allowed the Protestants of 
Paris by the edict of Nantes. Leaving the river at Invisy, 
over a gently-undulating surface, we passed Savigny, the splen- 
did residence of the widow of Marshal Davoust, the once dread- 
ed tower of Montleiy, and the battle-field of the tyrant Louis 
XI. and his turbulent vassals, till at length we made a full stop 
in the centre of the route at Etampes, an elongated old town, 
with a leaning tower, and the remains of a dismantled castle. 
Then, halting occasionally, we whirled for^a long distance 
through the monotonously-level, but very fertile, country of La 
Beauce, till the train stopped in a pleasant suburb, and there 
was a general rush for the good city of Orleans. This veiy an- 
cient and once-flourishing town occupies a level area on the 
north bank of the Loire, formerly the site of the Roman Aure- 
lianum. As you are suddenly transfen-ed from the busy capi- 
tal, its quiet streets, dilapidated, dingy old houses, and the ab- 
sence of striking objects in a place so renowned in history, ex- 
cite at first a feeling of disappointment. The cathedral, a fine 
Gothic edifice, commenced by Henry IV. to ingratiate himself 
with the pope, attracted our first attention. Then we saw a 
large placard from the city authorities announcing a recent cel- 
ebration of the anniversary of the raising of the siege by Joan 
of Arc in 1429 ; and we started in search of memorials of the 
heroic maid, whose name is the brightest association of Orleans. 
"We visited the house which she selected for her residence, that 
she might be under the protection of a virtuous and respected 
matron, its mistress; as also the cross and monument to her 



Chap. VIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 45 

memory, near the spot where she was wounded, on the oppo- 
site bank of the river. 

After all there is nothing that so galvanizes one's historical 
lore as contact with such storied relics. I really fancy that my 
friend and I, just at that critical moment, from memory and sun- 
dry peeps into a convenient narrative ■vjre had thoughtfully 
pocketed between us, might have stood a tyro's examination on 
the " Life and adventures of Joan of Arc," from a professor in 
spectacles. What a pretty little romantic tale to have repeated 
in hesitating sentences ! A young prince, heir to a kingdom 
ruined by factions and the prolonged insanity of his father, is 
betrayed by his own mother and flies to the south of the Loire, 
leaving three fourths of his country in the hands of the English 
and the stern successor of the hero of Agincourt — Orleans, the 
key of his position is invested, the French and Scottish forces 
covering it are defeated. All seems lost, and the citizens dream 
of cruel capture, and the prince meditates a retreat. 

At this crisis a simple peasant girl of seventeen, in a remote 
village, is seized with a religious enthusiasm to deliver her coun- 
try — accomplishes almost alone a long and dangerous journey 
— finally succeeds in obtaining the countenance of her prince, 
places herself at the head of a body of troops, penetrates the 
lines, and in complete armor, with her sacred banner waving, 
presents herself to the astonished citizens. The English are 
terribly annoying the town fi'om a strong fort erected on an 
island, where the bridge crosses the river, and garrisoned with 
their best troops. Against the remonstrances of the most expe- 
rienced officers she determines on attacking this, leads the assault 
in person, and when, after hours of ineffectual conflict, she sees 
her diminished band falter, she seizes a ladder and attempts 
the breach, is wounded and taken up for dead, rallies and re- 
turns to the charge, carries the fort, and, the seventh day from her 
entrance, raises the siege. 

Then come the marvelous events of her subsequent career-^ 



46 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VII, 

her bravery in future conflicts — her skill in rousing the nation, 
by leading the incredulous Charles to Rheims, then in the hands 
of the enemy, to be crowned ; the spotless purity of her life— 
her hon'or of cruelty, and her humanity to the prisoners — -her 
modest request, after having accomplished her mission by so 
many splendid victories, to be permitted to return to her former 
humble sphere — her uniform trust in Providence, and devotion 
to the duties of religion, as prescribed in the rites of that dark 
age — and, finally, her gentleness and resignation in submitting 
to a cruel and unmerited death. 

Bidding adieu to Orleans next morning, we took passage 
down the Loire in one of its curious little narrow steamers, 
and without landing but for a few moments the whole day, we 
swept past several ancient towns, frowning castles, and impos- 
ing chateaux. The river, though shallow, was still very broad ; 
and the recent rains having increased its ordinary rapid current 
and partially ovei'flowed its innumerable low, wooded islands, it 
really seemed quite a bold stream. It is much more direct in 
its course than the Seine, and also lacks its pleasing variety of 
scenery. Yet intersecting what is termed the garden of France, 
the vine-clad slopes and sunny prospects upon its banks remind 
you that you are in the cheery confines of the south. Either 
the change of air, or our gallant enthusiasm in our pilgrimage 
to the souvenirs of Jeanne d'Arc, produced a most happy 
effect on our health and spirits, enabling us to do ample justice 
to an excellent dinner. It was a perfect cure. And then the 
crowd of passengers were uniformly so courteous and communi- 
cative, that the day passed very pleasantly. The physiognomy 
of many of the country people resembled somewhat that of the 
French of Lower Canada. 

- We were surprised to find the Loire the channel of so much 
commerce. Constantly we met long ranges of river sloops, 
composed of six or seven fastened in a line, each cheerily spread- 
ing its broad sail ; and one of the officers informed me, that, in- 



Ghap. VII.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 47 

eluding the iron " Inexplosibles" of M. Larochejaquelin, there 
are twenty-seven steamboats now saiUng upon the Loire. 

In the evening we landed at Tours, the ancient capital of 
Touraine. It is pleasantly situated oiy the north bank, at the 
point where the great road from Paris to Bordeaux and Ba- 
yonne crosses the river on a very fine bridge. Before the revo- 
cation of the edict of Nantes it was the seat of extensive manu- 
factures of silk, and contained some eighty thousand inhabitants j 
but in common with Orleans, Saumur, and many other places 
in this region, it suffered severely from the banishment of the 
industrious Protestants, and contains at present but little over 
one third of its former population. Sauntering up one of the 
back streets, we succeeded in finding an ancient dwelling, with 
the front ornamented with festoons of ropes, and here and there 
an ominous knot, carved in stone, as if in cruel mockery. It is 
said to have been the residence of Tristan I'Ermite, the favor- 
ite executioner that ministered so fearfully to the tyranny of 
Louis XI. 

Perhaps the most interesting antiquities of the city are two 
lofty ruined towers, the sole remains of a vast cathedral destroyed 
at the Revolution : one named the Tower of Charlemagne, fi*ora 
its being the tomb of his wife — and the other that of St. Martin, 
the first bishop of Tours, and founder of the edifice. This cel- 
ebrated personage flourished in the fourth century, and is term- 
ed the second Apostle of the Gauls. He took a noble stand 
against the shedding of blood for religious opinions. His shrine 
became the Delphi of the dark ages, and part of his dress was 
borne in battle, centuries after, as a sacred standard. 

By a section of the Orleans and Bordeaux railway just fin- 
ished, we traversed a level country, and arrived next day at the 
little town of Amboise. The ledge of soft rock here forming 
the banks of the Loire is perforated in many places for dwell- 
ings, and the smoke of these, thus terraced irregularly one above 
another, and the sight of the inhabitants scrambling about, or 



48 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Qhap. VII. 

peeping out of doors and windows in the face of the rock, seem 
really novel. Not far from the town there is quite a subterra- 
nean village. The Turones are mentioned among those who 
confederated under Vercingetorix against Julius Caesar ; and 
there are slight remains in Amboise said to mark the place 
where he once encamped, and some Angular walled excavations 
in the rock, known as Les Greniers de Ccssar, are pointed out as 
his granaries or storehouses. Perched upon a lofty rock on the 
south bank, in a situation which in feudal times must have been 
nearly impregnable, is the famed castle. 

Here the suspicious Louis XI. fearing that his son, afterward 
Charles VIII., might be spoiled at court, sent him, it is said, to 
amuse himself in guarding poultry, with directions that he 
should be taught but one sentence of Latin : Qui nescit dissimu- 
lare nescit regnare ; and surely if dissimulation was the secret 
of governing, the reign of the crafty father was a capital lesson. 
Amboise is noted as the scene of the most sanguinary deeds of 
persecution, if we except the massacre of St. Bartholomew, re- 
corded in French history. 

The streets streamed with Protestant blood ; and when the 
executioners grew too weary, the rest of the victims, amounting 
to some twelve hundred in all, were drowned in the Loire. 
The castle was decorated with the hanging bodies till the offen- 
sive odor obliged the court to leave. Such was the fearful spirit 
of the times, that, of all the ladies about the king, including his 
mother and his youthful consort, the unfortunate Mary Stuart, 
the Duchess of Guise alone manifested pity, and, with pro- 
phetic forebodings, exclaimed, " Alas ! what a storm of hatred 
and blood has accumulated on the heads of my children !" 
Never was the declaration of holy writ, that the violence of the 
wicked shall return upon their own heads, more signally veri- 
fied. Nearly all who had any hand in the bloody deeds of this 
dark period perished miserably in the long series of civil Wars 
and assassinations that followed. 



Chap. VIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 49 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Escape fifom a Pastoral — Shepherdesses — Vineyards — Chateau of Chenoncean 
— Blois — Salle des Etats-G|:n6reaux -Fontainbleau — Return. 

We had stolen the freshest breath of the morning. The 
white sails upon the Loire, just illuminated by the rising sun, 
peering over its rocky bank, were gliding by as merrily as ever. 
The birds were holding a jubilee. As we turned rapidly round 
the Castle hill, the prospect of fields and vineyards stretched out 
before us in joyous loveliness. We, too, caught the spirit of 
gladness. Cabins and cars were things of the past; and the 
genius of Watt and Fulton no longer constrained us. Luckily 
for our friends, we had not conveniences for inflicting upon them 
any original poetry, in a small way. My learned companion, 
who had been so improvident as to expend the first lines of the 
Bucolics on a previous shadowy occasion, was either modest or 
forgetful, and our fit of enthusiasm ended in an invasion of the 
peaceful plains of the south. 

For a change we were curious to learn something of the peas- 
antry, by visiting some of the more retired places. We had be- 
come interested too, in certain fairy tales of a fine old chateau, 
situated in a secluded, romantic spot, a few miles distant, said 
to be the finest specimen of the kind in France, with all its 
unique embellishments, and rich store of antiquities, as carefully 
preserved as if it had been buried a few ages under the lava of 
a second Herculaneura. 

The country through which we passed presented a slightly 
varied surface, with small farmhouses, rather thinly scattered 
here and there. Agriculture appeared to be in a backward 
state, compared with that of other sections, and the ground was 

C 



50 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VIII. 



tilled with a rude wheel-plough. As in other portions of France, 
the women seemed to be very commonly employed in out-door 
labor. Fields of rye and other grain were every where unhedg- 
ed and unfenced, and about their edges, and the roadsides, 
females were frequently seen, each with a rope attached to a 
refractory beast or two, over which they thus watched while 
grazing. The whole domestic animal kingdom seemed to be 
under the protection of these gentle attendants, whose charac- 
teristic constancy through storm and sunshine, with scarcely any 
coverino- to their heads, had sacrificed their oris^inal fairness. I 
confess there is something revolting in this condemnation of 
women to constant field servitude. 

By far the most care seemed bestowed upon the cultivation 
of the great staple production of this region — the grape. This, 
perhaps, is stimulated by the rivalry arising from the circum- 
stance that the wine of each locality, and often of each separate 
establishment, has an individual character, knowmin the market, 
by which, in proportion to its quality, the price is regulated. All 
the southern exposures were covered with vineyards. The 
vines are planted about two feet apart, and trimmed annually to 
within a few inches of the ground. Early in the spring shoots 
put forth, the earth between is kept fresh and clean, and occa- 
sionally dug over, somewhat in the same way as in the cultiva- 
tion of Indian corn. Small sticks, two or three feet high, are 
placed as a support to each vine. At the time of our visit, the 
shoots were about the height of a large currant-bush. 

We passed in sight of Ghauteloup, formerly the residence of 
Count Chaptal, the distinguished chemist and minister of Bo- 
naparte, and the place where was established the first manufac- 
tory of sugar from the beet-root. 

. At length we wound through the beautiful valley of the River 
Cher, entered the little, quiet village of Chenonceau, and up a 
long avenue of trees ; and partly upon arches, over the very bed 
of the riyer, stood the famous chateau. As jou approach its 



Chap. VIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 51 

coquettish defenses of moat and round tower, guarding the en- 
chanting grounds in front, the showy facade and pretty extin- 
guisher-turrets, and the general profusion of ornament are suf- 
ficient to inform you at once, that it has been arrayed with 
characteristic skill in decoration by some lady architect — some 
designing creature, determined on making the most of its 
charms. It was commenced by Francis I., and afterward given 
by his son Henry II. to the celebrated Diana of Poitiers, who 
completed it in its present rich style. Through the uniform 
courtesy of the proprietor, the Count de Villeneuve, to strangers, 
we were kindly shown through the whole premises. The old 
armor lining the whole of the hall, the curtains at the doors, the 
tapestry covering the walls, the rich blue ceiling, studded with 
stars, the curiously-ornamented fireplaces and chimneypieces, 
the singular specimens of glass and china, the antique chairs, 
beds, and cabinets — all of the most costly description of the 
time were in such perfect order that it seemed almost incred- 
ible that they had occupied their places for three hundred 
years. 

By a singular coincidence, the place had been inhabited by a 
succession of characters, among the most remarkable that had 
flourished from the time of its first mistress to that of its late oc- 
cupant, the accomplished and virtuous Madame Dupin. Every 
step presented some interesting memorial. You inspected the 
favorite goblet of the pleasure-loving Francis I., and then you 
saw the mingled initials of Henry and Diana upon some an- 
cient piece of furniture, or you stood by the bed of Catherine de 
Medicis, and surveyed her sleeping-apartment just as she had 
left it ; you beheld your own respectable visage in Mary queen 
of Scots' mirror, or you tried to decipher the quaint French 
of an original letter of Henry IV. ; you pensively moralized on 
the fleeting nature of earthly beauty as you gazed on the sweet 
faces of Agnes Sorel and Gabrielle d'Estrees ; or, more sadly 
Still, you lingered in the chamber of the widow of Henry III., 



5^ LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. Vllt. 



with its walls still covered with black cloth, and the very win- 
dows shrouded with the drapery of death. To this delightful 
retreat the hospitality of Madame Dupin often drew many of 
the leading literary characters of the last century. Notwith- 
standing its numerous relics of royalty, such was the respect 
entertained in the neighborhood for its amiable mistress, then ad- 
vanced in years, that, as one of the very few instances of the 
kind, it remained untouched during the ravages of the French 
devolution. 

Returning to the village, we strolled into the country, dis- 
coursed with several of the peasantry, and visited their rustic, 
but comfortable dwellings to make inquiries. We were re- 
ceived in the most hospitable manner. One of their first ques- 
tions was, whether we had eaten ; and my friend, having ac- 
cepted a draught of wine, which was voluntarily proffered us^ 
the offer of remuneration was promptly refused. You find the 
characteristic national politeness prevailing even among the 
uneducated poor. Scarcely did we meet a single laborer in 
his blouse, who did not, as if it were a habit, give us a re- 
spectful salutation ; and some of them made good-natured in- 
quiries,, as to whether we were pleased with the country, and 
other matters. One good old lady, apparently near eighty, 
whose faculties had evidently failed, and who had, probably, not 
seen the last edition of Malte-Brun, upon learning that we were 
Americans, quite innocently tried our patriotism by naively in- 
quiring where America was situated. They seem to be a cheer- 
ful and industrious race. We learned that the laborers about 
the vineyards and fields ordinarily received from thiity to forty 
cents per day. As in all countries, the rural population seemed 
much more estimable than the masses in large cities. 

Returning at length to Amboise, we arrived by railroad, late 
in the evening, at Blois. We rose very early next morning, sal- 
lied out to reconnoitre the town, and found it pleasantly situa- 
ted in a kind of partial amphitheatre of eminences, commanding 



Chap. VIIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 53 

a fine view of the Loire. Bending our steps to its indifferent 
cathedral, we were surprised to find the door open. It was 
not six o'clock in the morning, and yet there was quite a 
throng of worshipers, mostly aged females ; and some, so in- 
firm as apparently to need assistance, had faltered to the place, 
which they doubtless regarded as particularly holy and privi- 
leged, to perform their private devotions. There was some- 
thing affecting in those forms, kneeling like statues upon the 
marble floor — those stifled sobs and upturned eyes. Erring, as 
we inay honestly believe them to be, in the theory of religion, 
who can say but that many of these humble and faithful ones 
shall, by a feebler light, succeed in finding their way to a 
brighter land 1 

Ascending a height on the west side of the town, we suc- 
ceeded, after some difficulty, in gaining admission to the castle, 
then undergoing thorough reparation. It will be recollected 
that Blois was very early a place of considerable importance, 
and that it was frequently the place of the sittings of the States- 
General, the rude legislature of former days. We visited the 
hall where they met in the north part of the castle. Though 
they deliberated together, yet there were still the remains of 
the division lines, or railings separating the three different or- 
ders. The precedence was given to the clergy, then came the 
nobility, and last and least the tiers etat, or representatives of 
the people. 

It was to meet this body that the Guises were drawn from 
their stronghold in Paris, to be assassinated by the orders of 
Henry III., whose weakness they had imprudently despised. 
He had never forgiven the treacherous day of the barricades. 
Though he had formerly joined them in persecuting the Prot- 
estants, and, before his accession to the throne, had even com- 
manded at the siege of Rochelle, yet, finding the League to be 
continually fomenting civil wars and commotions, and discover- 
ing theii' treasonable plot to force him to become a monk, at 



54 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. VIII. 

the instigation of the vindictive que en- mother, he sought to 
break up this dangerous combination, and rid himself of its 
powerful chiefs by a fearful crime, which was soon after 
retaliated on himself. "We were shown various apartments, 
associated with the details of this dark deed, and we traversed 
the staircase by which the king descended to distribute, with his 
own hands, the daggers to the forty-five gentlemen in waiting, 
who were to encounter the mighty Henri le Balafre. The 
Duke of Guise was summoned by a royal page from the legis- 
lative hall below to attend the king in his cabinet, and as he 
turned aside the tapestry at the door he received the first dag- 
ger. Struggling with prodigious force, he fought his way nearly 
the length of the room, when he fell, pierced with numerous 
■wounds, exclaiming, *' My God, have mercy !" A messenger, 
sent by one of his friends, conveying a slip of paper, wrapped 
in a handkerchief, with the words, *' Save yourself, or you are 
dead !" arrived too late. Next day, his brother, the cardinal, 
was put to death, and the clothes and bodies of both were 
burned in a fireplace in the upper part of the castle, and their 
ashes thrown into the Loire, to prevent their friends from pre- 
serving them as relics. 

As another proof of the fearful superstition of the age, it may 
be mentioned, tl^t, during the progress of the murder, prayers 
were offered for its success in the chapel in the eastern wing. 
A tower, looking over the river, is pointed out as the place 
where the cruel and intriguing Catherine de Medicis used to 
retire, with her astrologer, to consult the stars. 

Having taken our passage in the cars homeward, we had 
fleeting visions of ancient villages, and vineyards, fields, farm- 
houses, and rows of poplars, chasing each other through the 
level country, and the north bank of the Loire to Orleans, and 
then partly by our former route, in different ways, managed to 
make up about a hundred and fifty miles, when night found us 
at the little hamlet of Chailly, situated some forty miles fi'oiia 



Chap. VIII.] LOITlIilNGS IN EUROPE. 65 

Paris, upon the great road to Lycnis, and on the edge of the 
vast forest of Fontaiubleau. Next morning we were penetrat- 
ing its intricate labyrinths and its barren gorges, climbing the 
sandstone rocks upon its bald hills, resting in its deep, cool 
shades winding along its delicious vales, and its murmuring 
streams. For rich variety in forest scenery' it is, perhaps, unsur- 
passed in the world. 

At length we entered the quiet town of Fontaiubleau, and 
duly presented ourselves at the palace. It was commenced by 
Louis VII. as early as the twelfth century ; and, with few ex- 
ceptions, it has been a favorite with his successors. It is, per- 
ha])s, too well known to bear an elaborate descrij3tion. Its 
gorgeously-furnislied halls called up strange reminiscences of 
festal joy, pining sorrow, fearful crime, and blasted ambition. 
There was the marriage-chamber of Louis XV. and the late 
Duke of Orleans; the hall where Francis I. had feasted Charles 
V. ; the apartment ornamented by the fair hands of Marie An- 
toinette, and the window-bars, curiously wrought by Louis 
XVI., in their happier days ; the place where the revengeful 
Christina of Sweden assassinated her chamberlain ; the rooms 
occupied by Pope Pius VII. as the prisoner of Napoleon ; there, 
too, were the favorite apartments of the emperor himself, and the 
imperial throne, the price of so much blood and treasure, still 
undisturbed ; and there, too, inclosed in a glass case, was a 
little table upon which he signed his abdication. In the green 
court-yard in front took place the scene of his celebrated adieu 
to his faithful guard. 

Taking the diligence in the evening, we returned through a 
rich, beautiful country to Paris. 



56 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. IX, 



CHAPTER IX. 

A deep Subject-r— The Abattoirs — Hotel des Invalides — Chamber of Deputies 
— M. Lamartine — Chamber of Peers — P^i-e la Chaise. 

I NEVER expect to see the veritable fountain of Helicon, but 
(I confess it modestly) I have just had a warm drink from the 
Artesian Well of Grenelle. If in attempting to fathom so deep 
a subject, like the schoolmaster in the Deserted. Village, I should 
necessarily be implicated in 

''Words of learned length, and thundering sound," 

I hope the reader will not ascribe it to any vanity for display, 
but charitably^ttribute it to an overdose of the scientific waters. 
Paris is situated over v^hat is termed a geological basin, or 
vast subterranean valley of one solid stratum, filled up to the 
level of its circumference with several layers of various consist- 
ence, arranged something like what is technically termed a nest 
of earthen vessels, the smaller being contained in the larger, as 
is frequently the case in secondary and tertiary formations. 
Supposing that, lining the bottom of this concavity from the 
centre up to the very brim, there is a second stratum impervious 
to water, while intervening between these two solid formations 
there is a layer of sand or porous substance readily conducting 
that fluid, which may be freely supplied from the surface of the 
earth, at the edges, it is evident that if a hole be bored from 
above, near the centre, so as to pierce the other hard stratum, 
and a tube be inserted, that the water will rise to the level 
of its source, which may possibly be considerably above the 
spot at the surface where the opening is made, and it will thus 
flow in a constant stream. It is on this principle, doubtless 
familiar to most readers, that Artesian wells are constructed. 



Chap. IX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 57 

The municipal council of Paris, finding that a scarcity of water 
existed in that direction, upon the recommendation of compe- 
tent geologists, authorized, in 1832, the experiment of sinking 
one of these wells in the Abattoire de Grenelle. M. Mulot, to 
whom the contract was at length given, commenced boring on 
the 30th of November, 1833, and in two* years succeeded in 
penetrating to the specified depth of four hundred metres, with- 
out obtaining the desired result. At the earnest representations 
of M. Arago, who with wonderful accuracy had previously pre- 
dicted that it would be necessary to descend several hundred 
feet farther, an additional grant was obtained, and operations 
were continued. The most discouraging accidents occurred, 
requiring months for their repair — the municipality grew dis- 
couraged and stopped the funds — but, at the risk of ruin, M. 
Mulot courageously involved his own fortune, when at last, after 
a period of seven years from the commencement, and from a 
depth of eighteen hundred feet, a full stream gushed violently 
forth. . 

The water is confined in a tube of galvanized iron supported 
by scaffolding, and rises more than a hundred feet from the 
ground. At this height the rate of discharge is three hundred 
gallons per minute, and the force is calculated to be sufficient 
to supply more than twice that quantity at the surface. Upon 
placing my ear upon the tube there was a vibratory whizzing 
sensation, from the rapid motion of the fluid within. The 
water, of which I before intimated I had the benefit of drink- 
ing, is extremely pure and soft, and comes up at the tempera- 
ture of about eighty-four degrees of Fahrenheit, or a little 
less than blood-heat. 

Several of these wells now exist in France : some for the 
purposes of ordinary consumption, and others for irrigation, 
and to move machinery. Lately, M. Mulot has made a propo- 
sition to government to sink one in the Garden of Plants, to a 
depth so great that the water shall be sufficiently warm to heat 

c* 



53 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [€hap. IX. 

the greenhouses. It has even been proposed to warm some 
of the churches by this means. 

The Abattoire, or public slaughter-house, in the couit-yard 
of which the well at Grenelle is situated, is itself a gi'eat curi- 
osity. All the meat for the consumption of Paris is slaughtered 
at these immense establishments, of which there are several in 
different directions outside the barriers. Their great extent, 
the amount of business done, the neatness and order prevailing, 
their conveniences for the minutest details of the business, and 
the care of the resident inspectors in preventing the supply of 
an unhealthy or inferior article, are indeed admirable. 

Not far from this, on a slightly-elevated position a little back 
from the Seine, is the famous Hotel des Invalid es. This ma- 
jestic pile, with its fine dome, like many other magnificent things 
in France, is a monument of the Augustan age of Louis XIV. 
Soldiers and officers, from the marshal of France downward, 
who have actually been disabled by their wounds, or who have 
been thirty years in the service, are here comfortably, and even 
luxuriously maintained. The number of inmates is at present 
about three thousand. It is really an interesting sight, some 
sunny day, to watch these veterans quietly hobbling about, or 
resting contentedly under the trees in the pleasure-ground, 
stretching down to the river, or going through the duty of 
mounting guard at their own hotel, or attending to some of the 
lighter martial exercises of their youth, as cheerfully as if they 
were flattered with the idea that they were still soldiers. As I 
found by experiment, their eyes still brighten at the mention of 
Marengo, Jena, or Austerlitz. Some of them amuse themselves 
in constructing models representing the ascent of St. Bernard, 
and of the battles and sieges in which they have been dis- 
tinguished. Every thing around them reminds them of the 
eventful past. The hotel is defended by foreign brass can- 
non, the fruit of their former bravery. The different courts 
and departments are named after their most famous victo- 



Chap. IX- ] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 59 

ries. The chapel is hung with captured flags and trophies, 
and beneath lie the remains of several of their commanders ; 
in front is a colossal statue of Napoleon, the model of that 
upon the column in the Place Vendome, and in the rear, 
at present inaccessible, are the remains of their idolized Em- 
peror, over which there is now being erected a fitting mauso- 
leum. 

As you walk down the esplanade to the river, and turn to the 
right, you are suddenly presented with a view of the front of 
the Chamber of Deputies, ornamented with statues, bas-reliefs, 
and a fine row of Corinthiap columns. Having been politely 
furnished with a ticket at the American minister's, I gladly 
availed myself of the opportunity of visiting the chamber while 
in session. The legislative hall is semicircular, with the richly- 
furnished seats of the members rising in fi-ont of the president 
in the form of an amphitheatre. It is decorated with marble 
figures of Order, Liberty, and several cardinal state virtues, and 
a fine large painting representing Louis Philippe sv/earing to 
the Charter on the 9th of August, 1830, in the presence of La 
Fayette, Casimir Peiier, Lafitte, Benjamin Constant, and a 
crowd of the principal actors of the Revolution of July. The 
galleries, including the boxes for the royal family, the corps 
diplomatique, and the reporters, are estimated to accommodate 
some seven hundred spectators. The first row of seats below 
are for the ministers. Immediately in front of the president's 
chair is a desk, or tribune, as it is termed, from which the more 
elaborate addresses are made. By the less practiced speakers 
these are often read from manuscript. I was agreeably disap- 
pointed, however, to find much more animation and freedom 
than from previous accounts I had expected ; and there were 
frequently replies and extemporaneous remarks of considerable 
length from the deputies in their places. The subjects of dis- 
cussion were a commercial question and an appropriation for 
the encouragement of agriculture. Among others, we were 



60 LOITERINGS IN BUROPH. [GiiAr. IX. 



favored with a speech from the distinguished poet Lamartine. 
He is tall, slender, and dignified in his person, with slightly- 
aquiline features, and speaks with much clearness and elo- 
quence. Once or twice the debate grew warm, slight confusion 
ensued, and the president called thera to order. From what I 
have been enabled to gather from different sources, M. Berryer, 
the leader of the legitimists, or friends of the dethroned family, 
is generally regarded as carrying away the palm for fascinating 
eloquence ; and yet its practical effect is perhaps inferior to the 
clear, cutting logic, and fearless rejoinders of M. Guizot, the 
wily strategy and well-prep<ared fulminations of the leader of 
the opposition, M. Thiers, or the valiant efforts of his ally, Odil- 
lon Barrot. M. Arago, the celebrated astronomer, is associated 
with the two latter in the opposition, and is so liberal in his 
politics as to be regarded as decidedly republican. Each of the 
great parties, and indeed, to a certain extent, -each leader, have 
their accredited organs out of doors. M. Guizot and the Con- 
servatives are represented by the Journal des Debats and the 
Presse ; M. Thiers and the moderate opposition, by the Coii- 
stitutionnel ; the more ardent Liberals, by the Siecle ; the Re- 
publicans by the National ; and the Legitimists, by the Gazette 
de France and the Q,uotidienne. The deputies, 459 in num- 
ber, are elected every five years, by a carefully-registered list 
of voters, paying 200 francs in annual taxes. The qualification 
was reduced one third, and other beneficial changes were effect- 
ed at the Revolution of 1830. In a population of 34,000,000 
there are 150,000 voters. To be eligible for a deputy, the can- 
didate must be thirty years of age, and pay annually 500 francs 
in taxes. About 200 of their number hold offices of honor or 
emolument under government. The hall of the Chamber of 
Peers, in the Palace of the Luxembourg, which I afterwards 
visited, is an'anged in much the same manner as that of the 
deputies, and presents a similar appearance, except that the 
members, when in session, wear a richly-embroidered uniform, 



Chap. IX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. GI 



and from their being generally persons advanced in life, or some 
other circumstance, there is more quiet and imposing dignity in 
their deliberations. Peerage in France is no longer hereditary, 
but they are nominated for life by the king. In looking over the 
list of some 300 in all, I was pleased to see, as a just tribute to 
science, associated with the leading ancient nobility, and the 
recent acquisitions of the marshals and ministers of Napoleon, 
the names of Gay Lussac, Villemain, Cousin, and some others 
engaged in literary toils, or still holding professorships. 

There was no place in Paris that so deeply impressed me 
as Pere la Chaise. It was not so much from the beauty of the 
grounds, the pleasantness of the hills and valleys, or the tasteful 
arrangement of the trees, for in these, perhaps, from having my 
expectations too highly excited, I was somewhat disappointed ; 
and though the better class of tombs are doubtless more expen- 
sively and elaborately finished, and more carefully kept, yet at 
the risk of being set down as utterly heterodox in taste, I frank- 
ly confess that in diversified scenery and general natural embel- 
lishments, I think it surpassed by more than one of the lovely 
cemeteries of our own country. But my visits have always 
happened to be alone, and when I was at leisure to indulge 
in the pensive reveries natural to the resting-place of so many 
of the illustrious dead. At your first approach you are struck 
with the inscriptions upon the entrance. Little more than a 
half a century has passed since the atheistical frenzy of the 
Revolution, as if to wither the last hope of the afflicted, traced 
upon the portals to the burial places of Paris, " Death is an 
eternal sleep," and now, as an indication of a happy change in the 
world without, you read, as you pass the barrier of this famed 
inclosure, the more reasonable and sublime teachings of Chris- 
tianity, " Their hope is full of immortality," " Whosoever believ- 
eth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." It is a fit- 
ting reproof to the madness of skepticism that this assurance of 
a life beyond the grave, this release of the noblest powers from 



62 LOITERTNGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. IX. 

the bitter sentence of annihilation, should be associated with the 
spot where lie the earthly remains of La Place, Mohge, and some 
of the mightiest spirits of the past century. 

There is something striking and peculiar in the construction 
of a large number of the Catholic tombs. Instead of monu- 
ments or stones, there is erected over each family vault a little 
chapel some three or four feet wide, six or eight feet in length 
and height, and surmounted by a cross. It has a neatly-grated 
door in front, and a little stained-glass window in the i-ear, so 
that you readily see the inscriptions, busts, wreaths of flowers, 
and other objects within, and it is furnished with a chair, a 
prayer-book, a crucifix, or small image of the Virgin, wax can- 
dles, and other conveniences for their forms of devotion and 
intercession for the deceased. Upon emerging suddenly, and 
without intervening space, from the noise and bustle of the city 
of the living, and catching a first view of these little funereal 
temples scattered thickly every where, the thought irresistibly 
forces itself upon you that you are traversing a city of the dead. 
There were epitaphs in most of the languages of Europe. 
Friends and foes were quietly reposing together. Here, not far 
apart, were the remains of Sir Sidney Smith and a Spanish 
general whose name was associated with Wellington in the 
Peninsula, and a few yards distant was the plain gray stone, 
without ornament or inscription, which I should have passed by 
without a tribute had not some one recently, and apparently by 
stealth, with a paint brush rudely written upon one side, " Ney," 
and upon the other " Bravest of the brave ;" and in another 
place was the prouder tomb of his more fortunate companion, 
General Lavalette, and his heroic wife, with the scene of his 
escape sculptured upon it, representing her looking from the 
prison as in female apparel he is passing the guard. There, 
too, are the monuments of Massena, Suchet, Macdonald, St. 
Cyr, and many of the marshals of Napoleon. Perhaps the 
most imposing are those of General Foy and Casimii' Perier.- 



Chap. X.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 63) 

The most frequented is that of Abelard and Heloise. As I 
was returning from one of my visits, I noticed a gentle girl of 
about thirteen dressed in mourning, placing, with emotion, 
a wreath upon a little plain stone, which, from the inscrip- 
tion, seemed to be that over her mother. I kept quietly at a 
distance, and, to avoid disturbing her, pretended to be looking 
another way. Who that had ever lost such a friend could with- 
hold a tear with that lone child by a mother's grave ! 



CHAPTER X. 

Narrative Style — Illustrative Facts — Garden of Plants — Scientific Institu- 
tions — Life in a Madhouse — Politics. 

The writer happens from early instinct to be a great admirer 
of the narrative style, in preference to the dry descriptive. His 
first notion of " beginning in the world" came from Robinson 
Crusoe, and some of his first ideas of morals from ^sop's 
Fables. So if he ever becomes too circumstantial, perhaps 
some may charitably think to attribute it to his faulty educa- 
tion. 

Those very fond of facts may excuse an anecdote illustrative 
of the manner of teaching, and the peculiar facilities of some of 
the scientific institutions of the French capital. 

One fine morning, shortly after my arrival, I was greeted by 
what seemed to be the apparition of a very dear friend, with 
whom, from an early age, by a kind of happy fatality, in a man- 
ner really quite romantic, I had been thrown several times into 
the most intimate relations of social and student life. Shift as 
I might for hundreds of miles, and every year or two, like the 
vision of some welcome flying Dutchman, he was sure to cross 



64 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. X. 

my track; and now I had fancied the salt sea between us, yet he 
was here. Yes, it surely was he ; there was his usual easy, inde- 
pendent walk, like one with a light heart and a clear conscience 
— there was the laughing twinkle of his eye — and I felt a thrill, 
as by an electric shock, as I brought to my aid the evidence of 
touch, and found my hand imprisoned in his habitually firm 
gi'asD. In a strange land one is thankfal even for the sight of 
a domestic animal from home, but to meet a long-tried friend is 
bliss indeed. He was one of those frank, ardent, high-minded 
companions, to whom you can trust your whole soul; and his 
ready fund of wit or sentiment, as occasion required, beguiled 
many a weary hour. So we formed an alliance offensive and 
defenMve, established ourselves under the same roof as famil- 
iarly as years before, and, amid the hum of a foreign language, 
indulged in the sweet music of our mother tongue, engaged 
in kindred pursuits, shared our mutual joys and sorrows, and 
studied each other's domestic habits, somewhat after the amia- 
ble mannei' of the Siamese twins. One day, upon entering his 
room, I found pinned against the wall the periscarp of a plant, 
and lying upon the table was a regularly-constructed, fearful work 
on botany. " I need not look so quizzical — I must go with him 
to hear Professor Richard, and I, too, would be charmed." I 
was submissive. Several minutes before the time a crowd of 
the more youthful follov/ers gathered impatiently before the 
door. When it was opened there was a general scamper for 
the front seats, and in a few moments a lecture-room accommo- 
dating several hundreds was comfortably filled. On a large 
black board was the synopsis of a few families of the vege- 
table kingdom, which was immediately copied into all the 
note-books. With these almost every one seemed provided. 
Spread upon a table some sixteen feet in length was a pro- 
fusion of roots, stalks, seeds, and bunches of flowers, fresh from 
the botanical garden, arranged in order as the subject of the 
coming lecture. In a few moments, a tall, dignified-looking 



Chap. X.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 65 

personage, with a pale, intellectual face, and his coat buttoned 
closely, entered with a lively step, and, as a particular favorite, 
was received with a general cheer. He was then suffering 
from ill health, which subsequently obliged him to shorten his 
course. Yet the instant the first word escaped his lips, after 
taking his seat, his countenance brightened; and directly he was 
upon his feet, dashing from one end^of the. table to the other, 
sketching diagrams, or brandishing the fragment of a flower, 
and eloquently — yes, eloquently — discoursing upon it all the 
while, as if not a moment were to be lost, with such animated 
gestures and so much fluency and richness of language, and 
such a happy interweaving of humor and incident, that you 
became strongly interested. You had made a discovery. A 
science that you had perhaps previously laid upon the shelf on 
account of its interminable list of hard names, and the difficulty 
of seeing specimens, became wonderfully simplified, and you 
resolved again to be a disciple. Such was the earnestness of 
this excellent teacher, that at the close of his lecture his face 
was flushed, and he was generally in a free perspiration. 

Upon becoming more regular attendants at the School of 
Botany in the Grarden of Plants, we found every thing upon 
the most magnificent and instructive plan. It forms a large 
square in closure in the centre. The plants are set at a con- 
venient distance in rows like a nursery, and grouped together 
in classes and families, according to the natural system of Jus- 
sieu. By each specimen, elevated on a small iron rod, is placed 
a metallic label, painted green, on which, in letters legible a few 
yards distant, is inscribed its botanical name and the country to 
which it belongs, with a character distinguishing whether it 
is annual, biennial, perennial; as also a black, red, yellow, 
or other colored stripe across the top, denoting the plant to 
be poisonous, medicinal, ornamental, or edible. Besides these 
smaller green labels for each species, there were larger ones 
of different colors, at the head of each class and tribe. Thus, 



m LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. X. 

commencing with the mushrooms, mosses, and other cryptoga- 
mous plants, in one corner of the inclosure, you can inspect, 
TOW after row, gradually ascending to the proudest tree of the 
forest. Besides the vast number in the other extensive portions 
of the Garden of Plants, there are more than twelve thousand 
specimens in this department alone. Encouraged by such rare 
advantages, my enthusiastic friend became a confirmed bota- 
nist. As an innocent amusement, he commenced translating the 
professor's thick octavo on the subject. His very witticisms 
grew herbaceous. An unconscious passer-by, with an exceed- 
ingly broad hat, was humorously pointed out, one day, as a 
specimen of the umbelhferae. 

It is thus that those who wish to pursue thoroughly any par- 
ticularly intricate studies at the least expense find extraordinary 
facilities in Paris. The case we have mentioned is only a single 
example out of a vast number. If you wish to devote yourself 
to zoology and comparative anatomy, you have access without 
cost to the extensive menagerie of the Garden of Plants, and to 
the thousands of preserved specimens of beasts, birds, fishes, and 
reptiles, from the elephant and river-horse to the smallest insect, 
in its splendid museum; if you wish to perfect yourself in geol- 
ogy, you have at your command one of the most splendid col- 
lections in the world, in the centre of which, as if to encourage 
you, stands a fine statue of Cuvier, holding a representation of 
the earth, into an excavation of which his finger is pointing; and 
in the neighboring lecture-room you may attend the instructions 
of the celebrated Brogniart. Indeed, independent of the attrac- 
tion of its teachers, the Garden of Plants may perhaps be said 
with justice, as a whole, to contain the most valuable exhibition 
of the three kingdoms of nature in existence. 

On a corresponding liberal scale are the advantages for teach- 
ing every known science in the other institutions and colleges. 
Gratuitous lectures are given on the language and literature of 
almost every nation, ancient or modern. As an instance of the 



Chap. X.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 67 

extent to which this is carried, I may mention seeing the an- 
nouncement of one of the public professors discoursing on Turk- 
ish. Every general department of knowledge is divided into a 
great many specialities, to each of which there is a separate 
chair. Thus in the faculty of medicine alone there are twenty- 
six professors. * 

The situation of a public teacher is esteemed very honorable, 
and though the salaries are moderate, it is eagerly sought. 
Peers of France are not ashamed to be considered lecturers. 

There is a rising literary aristocracy more powerful than the 
proudest of the old nobility. The name of M. Guizot is still 
annually announced as a teacher of History. His place is tem- 
porarily supplied by another, and were he to cease to be pre- 
mier to-morrow, and his voice be silent at the tribune, it would 
probably again be heard from the professor's chair. 

Persons only who take degrees pay certain expenses of grad- 
uation ; but all the lectures, museums, libraries, and hospitals 
are free. All the educational establishments are under the 
supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction, generally 
some eminent literary personage, and a royal council. The 
expenses for public education for 1846 are estimated in the 
budget at more than seventeen millions of francs. 

One day I went to visit the Hospital of Salpetriere. This 
place, it will be recollected, was the seat of the investigations 
of Esquirol. It is in a fine airy situation near the Garden of 
Plants, with extensive buildings and pleasure-grounds, and can 
accommodate near five thousand inmates. There are two de- 
partments^ — one is an asylum for aged females, disabled or 
above seventy years ; and the other, numbering about one fourth 
of the inmates, is for the treatment of the insane. Never have 
I seen any thing of the kind so neat and comfortable as the first 
department. In one portion of the lunatic establishment there 
were conveniences for writing and innocent amusements, and 
they seem to have realized the idea that " Music hath charms 



68 LOITERLNGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. X. 

to soothe the savage breast," by placing at the -disposal of the 
inmates an organ and a piano, and regularly employing a music 
teacher. Those in this division seemed quite cheerful and hap- 
py. Light employment was furnished them, and they spent an 
hour a-day in gardening. Most of them saluted our company 
politely. One of them, with a certain officious air and benig- 
nant smile, graciously opened the door, and the lady attendant 
addressed her as the queen. The poor woman really fancied 
herself to bear the responsibilities of royalty, as also to be the 
wife of the deceased Duke of Orleans. In another section were 
the more unmanageable. As we entered, one of the number 
rushed toward us, wept and sobbed piteously, said that she 
knew not why they had put her there, and begged of me to 
assist her to escape. Doubtless there was not found the least 
suspicion of foul play in her case ; but the circumstance re- 
minded me of a fearful incident related ot one, who, under 
false pretenses, was incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, and who, 
in the wildness of despair, continually exclaimed, " I am not 
road," — only to prolong his captivity. 

, Before bidding adieu to this interesting capital, one might be 
expected to devote special attention to its secular Westminster 
Abbey, the Pantheon, with its imposing architecture and lofty 
dome, — the bronze column in the Place Vendome, wreathed 
with bas-reliefs of warlike scenes, surmounted with the colos- 
sal statue of Napoleon, which was formed of the cannon taken 
in the campaign of Austerlitz, — the equally beautiful and lofty 
brazen monument of the Revolution of 1830, in the Place de la 
Bastille, — and the treasures of the Bibliotheque Royale; but real- 
ly Pariss is becoming so much a place of resort for all the world, 
that one feels -somewhat scrupulous in penetrating farther into 
the region of twice-told tales. I am also reluctant to attempt a 
spiced dish of politics. Strong attachment to one's own coun- 
try and its government does not necessarily involve the abuse 
of all others ; besides, there was, at the outset, a sort of vow to 



Chap. X.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 69 

be good-natured. Much as the liberal-minded stranger finds to 
admire in many institutions of France, and great as have 
doubtless been the improvements in her political system, it 
would be too much for humanity for them to be perfect : and 
there are still anomalies, that from habit may be less irksome to 
her subjects, but w^hich, perhaps, partly frorn an opposite cause, 
are much more so to those with whom they are happily unnec- 
essary. The country has not yet entirely recovered, either in 
its warlike tastes or its economy, from the effects of the iron 
rule of Napoleon. Soldiers meet you every where ; your pass- 
port is a necessary companion ; and the police, if more quiet, 
are probably as numerous and vigilant as in the days of Fouche. 
In view of the astonishing changes that have taken place since 
the first Revolution, and the present feverish state of the public 
mind, it is difficult to anticipate the future. The love of order, 
and the intelligence so eminently favorable to the enjoyment of 
liberty, are evidently on the increase. The judicious peace pol- 
icy of the present government, if successfully continued for many 
years, by encouraging trade and manufactures, must eventually 
raise up a powerful middle class in society, like that in England, 
who will not rest contented without an extension of suffrage and 
other reforms. War, unless in a necessary and successful strug- 
gle for freedom itself, -is its greatest enemy. England granted 
Catholic emancipation and the Reform Bill only after a pro- 
found peace. It will be recollected, too, that the dynasty of 
Louis Philippe is in the same position with regard to Henry V. 
and the elder Bourbons, as were William III. of England and 
the House of Hanover with the Stuarts. It can only succeed 
by being the more liberal of the two. Its claims over its rival 
are not of hereditary right, but of political expediency and the 
voice of the French people. The successors of the Stuarts 
found it necessary to intrench themselves in their position, and 
conciliate their subjects by assent to the acts of habeas corpus 
and toleration, and the surrender of important pre rqgatives, and 



70 LOITE RINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. X. 

when the hand of Louis Philippe shall cease to hold the reins, 
and the excuse of present danger from this cause shall be past, 
perhaps there will be a revolution in favor of a more liberal 
state of things, or it will be necessary to resort to a similar 
policy of gradual concession. 

A transient visitor to the metropolis, perhaps naturally forms 
an exaggerated unfavorable opinion of the French morals. 
While drunkenness is almost unknown, the records of the 
Foundling Hospital, the character of the popular literature, and 
the loose opinions that too generally prevail of the obligations of 
the marriage vow, naturally shock the feelings of those reared 
under happier influences. Yet the capital is not the country, 
and those more intimately acquainted with the national charac- 
ter uniformly say that a very different state of things exists in 
the provinces. There is no sanctuary for virtue like a home. 
It preserves the young from the contamination of the world 
without, and it cherishes a thousand kindly affections that be- 
come powerful safeguards. How many in our own land of 
happy hearths would be lost in the hour of trial but for the 
thoughts of wounding and disgracing those they have there 
learned to love! Most of the Parisians, in our sense of the 
word, have no home. They lodge in hired apartments, and 
spend their leisure hours at the cafes and places of public 
amusement. Yet there are evident signs of improvement. The 
moralist looks with hope at the acknowledged increase of relig- 
ious feeling ; and after all, there is no virtue which endures like 
that which, above considerations of human expediency, looks 
for its reward in the world beyond the grave. 



Chap. XI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 71 



CHAPTER XL 

Introduction — St. Cloud — Sevres — Versailles — Journey to Boulogne — Foggy 
Reception — London — Evangelical Alliance. 

I RECOLLECT an acquaintance with whom the process of say- 
ing ** Good-by," even on ordinary occasions, was often extremely 
gradual. Like certain orators, when he got under way it seem- 
ed impossible to stop. He was sure to fascinate you with the 
air rushing through the half-opened door upon your bare head, 
in a cold hall; or keep you hesitating between respect and 
impatience on the stone steps, and just as you fancied you had 
escaped, you heard a voice behind you : he had forgotten some- 
thing, and returned to the charge, till he gave you as many 
parting salutations as a Chinese master of ceremonies. 

Imitating his impressive example, then, let us linger about 
the precincts of the lively capital, to which we had professedly 
bidden, adieu. 

As you set out from Paris in a southwesterly direction, you 
pass through a portion of the Bois de Boulogne, celebrated for 
its duels, and the encampment of the English troops; and crossing 
the Seine a few miles below the city, you ascend the brow of a 
hill, on the opposite bank, to the imposing Palace and Park of 
St. Cloud. Here, as one of the pictures in the Gallery of Ver- 
sailles vividly reminds you. Napoleon, assisted by his brother Lu- 
cien and his grenadiers, played the part of Cromwell, in forcibly 
breaking up the sitting of the Council of Five Hundred, in the 
Revolution of the 18th of Brumaire ; and here were signed the 
ill-fated ordinances which cost Charles X. his throne, and made 
his ministers life-prisoners. It is still one of the summer resi^ 
dences of the royal family. The interior is ornamented with 
pictures and rich furniture similar to the others ; and some- of 



72 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XI. 

the pieces of Gobelin tapestry lining the walls are so exqui- 
sitely executed, and the colors are so delicately laid, that, at the 
distance of a few feet, it is difficult to distinguish them from real 
paintings. The view of the winding river, and Paris, in the 
distance, from the grounds in front, is exceedingly fine. 

My visit to it happened to be in company with a party of 
friends, and, after paying our respects to the palace, we strolled 
along the brow of the hill, through a forest of lofty trees in the 
grounds to the eastward for a mile or more, till we came to the 
village of Sevres. On presenting our tickets, we were politely 
conducted through the immense show-rooms of the Royal Por- 
celain Manufactory, containing magnificent services, vases, and 
paintings upon porcelain, valued, in some instances, at thou- 
sands of francs each, besides a museum of the earthenware of 
all rations, fi"om Etruscan vases and the rudest pottery of the 
savage to the finest fabrics of Europe and America. 

The establishment employs one hundred and fifty- persons, 
and, like the manufactory for the Gobelin tapestry, is the prop- 
erty of the government. 

A little to the eastward of the village, you intersect one of 
the two railroads leading from Paris to what is certainly the 
principal attraction, both to citizens and strangers, outside of 
its walls — the Palace of Versailles. It costs but a pleasant ride 
of twelve miles from the capital. As you enter the gate in front, 
and walk leisurely up a gentle ascent, you are struck with the 
imposing array of colossal statues of some of the greatest men 
of France, on either hand, with Louis XIV., its founder, on 
horseback in the centre, at their head ; and then the connected 
mass of edifices at the summit, with its gigantic wings extend- 
ing far downward, presents an appearance of overgrown great- 
ness worthy to be counted the masterpiece of the most taste- 
ful, extravagant, and vain monarch of his time. 

By the burden of debt and. taxes thus created, it is thought 
that he left the French Revolution as a legacy to his gi'andson, 



Chap, XI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 73 

and by an ominous coincidence it was from this place that 
Louis XVI. was forced by the triumphant mob to become their 
prisoner in Paris. 

Its unpleasant associations, and more especially the enormous 
expense of a corresponding establishment, have deterred Napo- 
leon and succeeding rulers from inhabiting the principal palace, 
till at length that munificent patron of the fine arts, and skillful 
flatterer, Louis Philippe, afSxed in imposing character upon its 
front a new dedication {A toutes les gloires de la France,) pleas- 
ing to the national pride of every Frenchman, and filled it with 
a vast collection of statues and paintings, forming, perhaps, 
the largest and best arranged historical gallery in the world, 
and opened the palace and its magnificent grounds for the gra- 
tuitous instruction and amusement of all classes. 

Commencing with the elevation of a Roman general upon a 
shield, by his soldiers, as their Gallic sovereign, and kindred 
scenes, there is a separate apartment devoted to each age, con- 
taining portraits of the kings, queens, eminent characters of 
France, pictures of coronations, marriages, and stirring inci- 
dents of each reign to the present time. 

The department devoted to the Crusades is particularly full 
and interesting, containing representations of their leading 
events, in which Peter the Hermit, St. Louis, Philip Augustus, 
Godfrey de Bouillon, Richard Coeur de Lion, and hosts of 
mailed knights and turbaned Saracens are fiercely figuring, 
about the size of life. Very appropriately in this department 
are placed the carved doors and the huge mortar belonging to 
the Hospital of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, recently 
presented by the sultan. 

The series depicting the various incidents of the career of 
Napoleon is also very full, and the whole is brought down to 
the deeds of the three glorious days, the swearing to the charter, 
the events of the commencement of the reign of the present 
monarch, and the battles in Algiers. 



74 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL 

It seems that the splendor and extent of this royal residence 
were oppressive even to some of, its first occupants, and Louis 
XIV., at the suggestion of Madame de Maintenon, built the 
Grand Trianon, a kind of cottage-palace, in a distant part of 
the grounds. Marie Antoniette preferred the Petit Trianon, 
a small residence still more retired, with half a dozen plain 
rooms, an English garden, ornamented with untrimmed trees, 
Swiss chalets, thatched with straw, a little dairy establishment, 
witli whose affairs, it is said, she used to busy herself. The 
park, diversified with many splendid avenues and devices, 
extends for several miles, and the stupendous fountains and 
water-works, on account of the great expense attending the 
operation, play only three or four times a-year, on great 
occasions. 

Having taken my place in the diligence for the north, one fine 
morning, much in the style of the hero of the opening para- 
graph, I bade a lingering final adieu to Paris, and in the same 
spirit exchanged farewell salutations of various degrees of 
strength, according to the distance, with a very dear friend who 
accompanied me to the place of departure. On the arrival of the 
diligence at the railway station in one of the suburbs, the body 
of this lumbering conveyance was suddenly lifted off the wheels, 
and placed on a low, flat railway car, and directly, as we sat 
quietly in our places, we were flying at a rapid rate upon the 
great northern railway. Our course along the River Oise and 
all the way to our taking to wheels again, at the old provincial 
town of Amiens, was through a level and comparatively unin- 
teresting country. To enjoy a better view, I had taken my 
place in the banquette, and a huge corpulent conductor having 
left his more usual place in front during the night, kept the blind 
open, and greatly encroached upon the lateral dimensions of two 
suffering fellow-passengers and myself One of them was not 
of the gentlest mood, and grew perfectly furious. Finding he 
could scarcely speak a word of French, and that our oppressive 



Chap. XL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 75 

functionary was equally innocent of English, one of us ventured 
to translate some of the milder sentences of our companion. It 
was labor lost. Sleep at length came as a peacemaker, and at 
daybreak we walked into the good city of Boulogne. 

As it became lighter we sallied forth, and obtained from a 
little distance a view of the column erected to commemorate 
the preparations of Napoleon and the grand army upon this 
spot for the invasion of England. 

After we were on board the little steamer, and fairly in the 
Channel, the clear sky suddenly became overcast, a storm of 
wind and rain came on, and with it sea-sickness, like a prevail- 
ing epidemic, and, as we neared the shore there was a dense 
mist that tempted some of us to believe that the worst com- 
plaints against the climate of England were true, and that it 
was emphatically the land of fogs. But, as if by a charm, we 
had scarcely landed at Folkestone when the sun shone out in 
strange brightness, and we were soon whirling rapidly, by rail- 
way, through a beautiful, undulating country, whose pretty 
country seats, quiet cottages, and fields lined with hedges and 
luxuriant shrubbery seemed floating by us like a passing vision 
of some terrestrial paradise. Owing to the climate and the 
effects of an extremely high state of cultivation, vegetation 
wears a hue of intense green, and there is a remarkably fin- 
ished softness to the landscape. We were presented, too, 
with one of the finest specimens. The county of Kent is 
often styled the garden of England ; but we had scarcely 
gazed upon it before we were plunged into the smoke and 
din of busy, interminable London. 

The immediate occasion of this earlier visit was a message 
received in Paris from kind friends at home, requesting me to 
represent them at the approaching meeting of the Evangelical 
Alliance. The history of that extraordinary assemblage is, 
doubtless, too familiar to need repetition. More than twenty 
different sects, and more than a thousand Christians from the 



76 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL 

four quarters of the globe, and speaking several different lan- 
guages, mingled together for nearly a fortnight in wonderful 
harmony. It was a touching and beautiful illustration of the 
identity of the Christian religion under many different forms. 
Ministers and laymen, gray-headed fathers of the Church univer- 
sal, and learned divines whose eloquent writings had become 
familiar household books in distant lands, here gathered on an 
errand of peace and forgiveness. It seemed like the harbinger 
of a happier day. Whatever may be the future history of this 
effort, the assemblage itself is a gi*eat fact in favor of the truth 
of Christianity, which can never be destroyed. No other in- 
fluence could have so delightfully calmed so many apparently 
discordant elements. 

After a thorough friendly discussion, almost every important 
proposition was carried without a dissenting voice. Even in 
minor matters, there were scarcely even half a dozen hands 
raised in the negative. Had you not known them previously 
by reputation, it was commonly impossible to tell the peculiar 
sect of any of the speakers by what fell from their lips. It was 
the occasion, too, of delightful interchanges of feeling, generous 
hospitalities, and the formation of cherished friendships that can 
never be forgotten. 



Chap. XII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 77 



CHAPTER XII. 

Trying the Nerves— Dover — Influence of the Moon — Ostend — Ghent — Brus- 
sels — Bold Design — Waterloo — Trip to the Rhine— Cologne. 

The fatigue of a previous journey, and daily occupation in 
the discharge of the pleasing commission of my excellent fiiends, 
prevented me from doing justice to the sights in London; and 
leaving them, and ray heavier baggage as probable subjects of 
future attentions, at the end of a fortnight I was flying off at a 
tangent for the Continent, through the beautiful scenery, and 
the miles of dark tunnels, of the Southeastern railv^ray. The 
average rate of speed of the cars in England is perhaps greater 
than any where else, and whirling through the air at forty or 
fifty miles an hour is very apt to give the nervous some of the 
tickUsh sensations of the celebrated John Gilpin. The Channel 
steamers have no fixed hours for starting, but are regulated by 
the tide, which here rises very high. In fact, owing to natural 
or other causes, the influence of the moon upon them is not 
quite so regular as upon the passive waters ; and, like some 
Belgian railways, it requires a good deal of science to tell the 
precise moment you should be in your place. So, instead of 
reposing as we might have done, amid the wonders of the cap- 
ital, we rested till near noon next day upon the breezy shore 
at Dover, a quiet town that, hke a belt, Hes hemmed in on one 
side, while on the other are the lofty white clifls that anciently 
gave the name to the island. A walk upon these, next morn- 
ing, in the direction of the fine old castle, reconciled me to my 
fate. It was one of those blissful moments of existence when, 
though alone, we are not solitary, and the soul, awake only to 
loveliness, seeks companionship with nature, and charmed, as 
if by spirit- whisperings before unheard, seems to hold sweet 



78 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XII. 

converse with earth, sky, and ocean. The prospect was fairy 
as a dream. Before me, calm as a forest lake, lay the Channel, 
while upon its surface, as if set in molten silver, were to be 
counted some fifty sail, courting, apparently in vain, the coy 
breeze. Trees, hedges, and lawns, mingled with pretty cot- 
tages and villas, and clad in the peculiar rich tints of an island 
shore, stretched away to the background, as its crowning beau- 
ties ; and the slight characteristic haziness, like that of our Indian 
summer, but tempered the blueness of the sky and the glare of 
the morning sun, throwing a kind of spiritual dimness over a 
scene whose charms lulled me into a sweet revery, in which all 
the less pleasing earthly realities were forgotten. From this 
transcendental state of existence, which from my nearness to 
the precipice was sufficiently hazardous to be interesting, I 
was suddenly awakened by a column of black smoke, which in 
these reckless days has become one of the symptoms of steam. 
The little packet, which from the dizzy height seemed but a 
plaything, was actually evincing signs of hfe, and snorting and 
puffing away as if to give- fair warning to all sentimental loi- 
terers. I set off at a furious pace down the subterranean 
staircase, and arrived on board just as they were pulling off, 
in a most unpoetical pei'spiration. After a pleasant sail of four 
hours, the steamer approached a flat shore, and edged its way 
into the little cove, on one side of which were the low, white 
houses and red-tiled roofs of the town of Ostend. Having, as 
T hope, given a satisfactory exemplification of the doctrine of 
passive obedience and non-resistance at the custom-house, and 
of patience in waiting an hour extra at the station, we were at 
length fairly in motion, and passed hour after hour of their 
railroad measure through a richly-cultivated but perfectly flat 
country, whose rows of willows, ditches, and canals, and 
peasants with tobacco pipes innumerable, attest its claims to 
neighborship with Holland. At length we halted in the midst 
of a quiet, ancient-looking city, half in ruins, and a fellow-pas- 



Chap. XII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 79 

senger murmured the name of Bruges, I confess I heard it with 
a feeling of regret. Having suffered somewhat from too close 
confinement several months previous, and being a little anxious 
on account of the lateness of the season, all my sympathies were 
concentrated upon a projected ramble among the Alps; and in 
my haste to get on, I had taken a ticket aU the way to Brussels, 
almost forgetting that with but a transient glance I was to pass 
through Bruges and Ghent — cities that with Venice were once 
the commercial capitals of the world — repositories of some of the 
choicest paintings of the great masters of the Flemish school, and 
of some of the most interesting historical monuments of the mid- 
dle ages. As the engine stopped a few minutes, as if for breath, 
at the latter city, I looked out into its roomy streets, lined with 
stately old houses ; thought of Charles V. and the cruel Alva; of 
the stormy days of the Van Arteveldes and Philip the Good ; of 
the time when its weavers darkened the streets in restless throngs; 
when at the sound of its great bell it could summon eighty thou- 
sand fighting men — and of a furious thunderstorm just rising- — 
the probable conducting powers of steam pipes and railroad iron 
— of a certain precious morsel of loose baggage — when, at a given 
signal, there was a general rush ; the passengers in the open cars 
wei-e trying to change their tickets ; an unexpected crowd from a 
fair were applying for places, and amid the shouts of conductors, 
and a general hubbub, the unfeeling engine forced us away from 
the good city of Ghent. Late in the evening we arrived at Brus- 
sels. The appearance of the streets, the cafes and restaurants, 
thfe language and dress of the better classes, and the general 
air of things, give one the idea that there is a very decided at- 
tempt at imitating Parisian life here. But my whole thoughts 
at the time were bent upon seeing the field of Waterloo. I can 
scarcely tell why, but I can hardly remember a single object of 
curiosity a visit to which has ever excited the same interest in 
advance as that famed battle-ground. It is true that the widely 
different accounts of French and English historians, the anima- 



80 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chaf. XII- 

ted discussions respecting the faults or mishaps of different par- 
ties, its importance as a trial of military skill between two of 
the first commanders of the age,, and as one of those critical 
conflicts which have influenced the destinies of the world for 
ages, in some measure justified this feeling. But really it be- 
came oppressive. I took no notes of ray dreams the night before, 
but if I had any they must have been of the battle of Waterloo. 
I had pored over different authorities, till I was as much in the 
mist as a jury with too much evidence and too many lawyers. 

Feverish with anticipation, I set out from Brussels without 
seeking for company ; and, for the benefit of any who may ^be 
in danger of falling into this bachelor-habit of traveling, I may 
as well frankly relate my experience. For want of other em- 
ployment, or from an overexcited imagination, I amused myself 
in constructing a " castle in the air,*' of extraordinary magni- 
tude. I really conceived the design of writing a regular statis- 
tical heroic account of the battle of Waterloo, in the shape of a 
warlike letter to my friends, that thus I, too, might "shoulder 
my quill, and show how fields were won." If I could not rec- 
ollect the well-known poetical description of the untimely pre- 
liminary festive scene at Brussels, I was pretty sure that I had 
a clew in the name of the author. Tempting scenes, too, for 
an enthusiastic pencil, were the unrolling of the French col- 
umns, and the moving of the imperial eagles along the brow of 
the opposing hill, to the sound of the Marseillaise ; — the demon 
fury of the opening struggles for the possession of Hougou- 
mont, — the carnage of LaHaye Sainte, — the whirlwind descent 
of Ponsonby's ill-fated dragoons, — the reckless charges of the 
glistening cuirassiers,' — the marshaling of the remnant of the Old 
Guard by Napoleon, as he led them a little way down the de- 
scent, pointed them the road to Brussels, and, for the last time, 
appealed to them as his " children ;" and the rampart of steel 
that sprang as from the earth to receive them at the magic 
words " Up, guards, and at them !" What a crowd of martial 



Chap. XIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 81 

figures, ready forged, from Homer down to Napier, might be 
borrowed, in case of any scarcity of originals ! One might, 
after the manner of some, play with fiery serpents, lions, rocks, 
sulphury clouds, volcanoes, and the like, by way of decoration, 
with perfect impunity. I was in the midst of the fray (in fancy, 
I mean), I had conjured up this sublime spectre, when, luckily 
for my friends, there flashed upon me a slight sense of the ridic- 
ulous. Other scenes, less familiar, might do ; but they had prob- 
ably read the regular account of the battle of Waterloo a hun- 
dred times, and really was I going to enlighten them upon this 
point again, in a mere traveling journal 1~ I found, too, when I 
caught the first glance of the field, that by some unaccountable 
mistake (I hope some future historian or letter- writer v/ill give 
us the benefit of a good map) I had always placed Hougoumont 
on the left instead of the right of the English. As has been often 
described, the plain presents two parallel ridges crossing the 
great road fi'om Brussels, of which that occupied by the allies 
is a little the higher. As the road descends into the valley, it 
passes close to the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. On the top 
of the French ridge is La Belle AlUance, and half a mile west 
of the road in the valley is Hougoumont. 

The day was wet and dreary, and the field that, in imagination, 
I had just peopled with contending hosts was silent as the grave. 
There came over me a feeling of unmingled sadness. You trod 
as though the very turf beneath your feet had been " a soldier's 
sepulchre." The guide, who had beeji employed in taking care 
of the wounded, gave a fearful account of the cries and suffer- 
ings as, to use his comparison, they lay helpless and bleeding, 
like maimed and slaughtered sheep. How many, the pride and 
hope of many a circle, unpitied and unfriended, in lingering an- 
guish expired upon the damp earth as their couch on that mem- 
orable day ! No mother or wife came to moisten their parched 
lips, or catch their last whisper; but their death dream was of 
their brethren, who, they scarcely knew why, were piercing 



82 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XII. 

each other's breast above them, and of the smoke and din as of 
a conflict of demons. The last pang was perhaps given by the 
crushing wheel of artillery, or their yet living faces were 
mangled by the hoof of the maddened courser, I never had 
such a consciousness of the sinful cruelty of war. I could not 
help secretly thanking Heaven that the blessed influence of 
Christianity was hastening the day when its ravages should 
cease. Every memorial was of destruction. Little innocent- 
looking children came up and offered bullets and bits of broken 
armor. From the top of the Belgian mound was pointed out 
each locality that had gained distinction from the number of its 
slain. I looked upon the fresh furrows in one part of the field, 
and discovered fragments of human bones mingled with the 
earth ; and the guide, learning that I was a physician, and think- 
ing to gratify me, offered me a skull. 

Next day, after paying my respects to the comparatively un- 
ostentatious palace of King Leopold, some creditable modern 
paintings, the pleasure-grounds, and magnificent Hotel de Ville 
of Brussels, I took the cars for the Rhine. Passing through 
Lou vain, the celebrated seat of Catholic learning, and a country 
more agreeably diversified, we at length descended a long in- 
clined plane to the ancient city of Liege, — the Biraiingham of 
northern Europe, prettily situated upon the river Mouse, in a 
basin environed by romantic hills. Upon leaving this, the rail- 
way passed near the celebrated Spa watering-place along the 
course of a small river, and piercing very often the hills that pro- 
jected too far into its beautiful valley. As we entered the do- 
minions of Prussia, the trim-looking hedges reminded me of the 
careful culture and the character of the landscape of England. 

The hum' of the strongly-pronounced German around me and 
the harmonious mingling of the merry voices of some singers in 
the open cars, attested that we were in the confines of their 
" fatherland." At length it became twilight. We traversed a 
level plain, and the cars stopped. We were in the good city 



Chap. XIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 83 



of Cologne, distinguished for the number of its churches, con- 
vents, and beggars, and its apparently necessary perfume. It 
is redeemed, however, from the effect of any little faults by its 
situation on the banks of the renovriied stream which, in a 
more refined way, is almost as much the object of the veneration 
of the dwellers upon its banks as the Ganges or the Nile. 



CHAPTER Xm. 

St. Ursula— Happy Meeting— Cathedral— The Rhine— Ehrenbreitsteiu — 
^ Legend of Lurlei — Home Feelings — Fair at Frankfort. 

Cologne, as travelers for the last twenty years have told us, 
abounds with Roman remains. Its very name is one of these 
in a modified form, and was given it by Agrippina, mother of 
Nero, who was partial to it as her birthplace, and sent here 
a colony of Roman veterans. But all the inscriptions, altars, 
and old walls are eclipsed in interest by its unfinished cathedral, 
one of the finest Gothic specimens in Europe. So, as in duty 
bound, I made this the first thing in the order of a day of sight- 
seeing. The object that most prominently arrests your atten- 
tion on your approach is a large crane for raising stones, that for 
centuries has been left standing on the highest unfinished tower. 
Having been once taken down, a terrible thunder-storm drove 
the superstitious citizens immediately to replace it in its former 
respectable position. 

At length I made my way into the magnificent portion finish- 
ed, which is garnished with a rare collection of monuments of 
ancient prelates and warriors; and after mounting to the dizzy 
height of the roof, and paying, article by article, for the diflferent 
sights, according to a rather high tariff, which here parcels 
out knowledge in convenient lots, like books published in num- 



84 LOITERINGS IN EUROPR. [Chaf. XIIL 

bers, I bad my faith tried by a peep into an inclosure said to 
contain vast treasures, and the bones of three kings, or magi, 
who came to worship the Savior, obtained in one of the expe- 
ditions of the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and presented as 
a rich prize. 

This city, if accounts are true, is also remarkable as having 
received the largest emigration of young ladies on record. Ac- 
cording to the current legend, St. Ursula, a British princess, and 
a train of eleven thousand virgins, in a sea voyage to Armorica, 
were carried by a tempest all the way up the Rhine to Cologne, 
and upon landing were cruelly murdered by the Huns. I went, 
toward evening, to the church dedicated to the principal victim, 
where the story is yet related, and their bones as hideous relics 
are still shown to wondering pilgrims ; but I happened to be 
too late for admission. 

Next morning, while standing on the deck of-one of the Rhine 
steamers just pushing off, quite unexpectedly I encountered a 
party of several Americans, among whom I was dehghted to 
iind one of my most esteemed early friends. It was a glorious 
day. We are such creatures of sympathy that our enjoyments 
are happily contagious. After a couple of hours' sail we ap- 
proached Bonn, and found ourselves fairly in the midst of the 
beauties of the Rhine. We formed a quiet, enthusiastic circle 
by ourselves upon the deck, and feasted our eyes for the greater 
part of the day. The romantic summits of the seven mountains 
crowned with gray, ruined walls of old castles — the peak of 
Drachenfels, where in legendary lore the Norman Seigfried 
killed the dragon — the sweet island of Nonnen worth in the 
midst of the river, with its white-walled nunnery embowered in 
ti-ees, where was immured the betrothed bride of the unfortu- 
nate Roland — the tower on the opposite shore, where, as a her- 
mit in view of her prison, dwelt the disconsolate lover — the 
castle that once sheltered Melancthon, and Bucer, and a Prot- 
estant archbishop- — the wooded height and pretty church of 



Chap. XIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 85 

Apollinarisberg — the defile of Andernach — the spot where the 
French under Hoche, and the Romans under Csesar, crossed the 
Rhine — the dehcious wooded vale, of the Sayn, all passed like 
shifting scenes of a beautiful vision ; and the steamer approach- 
ed the place where mingle the clear waters of the Moselle with 
the turbid Rhine at the flourishing and ancient city of Coblentz. 
Our company represented several different sections, con-e- 
sponding to the points of the compass in our own country ; 
and each more remarkable turn in the majestic river, each 
frowning battlement of rock or bold headland, each green tribu- 
tary vale or overhanging mountain called forth some bappy re- 
mark, some appropriate allusion perchance to kindred scenes 
upon the Hudson, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, or the Ohio. 
It is a fact, that most have probably verified, that the most 
lovely scenes of nature seem often to remind the traveler of 
the happiest hours of his past existence — of home, and the 
friends whom absence has taught him more than ever to cher- 
ish. He may revel for moments as in a dream of a fairy land, 
but ever and anon, as a passing cloud, comes the thought 
that he alone of all his own hearth circle is sharing the bless- 
ed sight. How much more richly would he enjoy it could 
he chime in the ecstasy of a single home voice ! I could not 
help but admire the strength of these better feelings of our 
nature, as manifested in frequent casual allusions by our com- 
panions. Among them was one who had been borne down by 
the earlier trials of an arduous profession, and had left a young 
wife and a loved circle in the hope of recovering his ruined 
health in a foreign land. He was happily improving. He 
seemed intoxicated with the sight, as if the joyous earth were 
a newly-bestowed boon, and his thoughts naturally turned to 
the one who, in view of the possibility of a final earthly separa- 
tion, must have been regarding him with deepest interest. I 
shall never forget the enthusiasm which lit up his face. It 
seemed as if nothing but intense poetry could embody his feel- 



86 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIII. 

ings. Seizing a moment when a little retired from the crowd, 
in a low, tremulous accent denoting deep emotion, and with a 
stress upon the last couplet, he repeated the well-known stanzas 
written by one far less happy : 

" The castle ci'ag of Dracheufels 

Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine, 
Whose breast of waters broadly swells - 

Between the banks which bear the vine ; 
And hills, all rich with blossomed trees, 

And fields which promise com and wine, 
And scattered cities crowning these. 

Whose far white walls along them shine, 
Have strewed a scene which I should see 
With double joy wert thou with me; 

And peasant girls with deep-blue eyes, 

And hands which offer early flowers, 
Walk smiling o'er this paradise, 

Above the frequent feudal towers ; 
Though green leaves lift their walls of gray, 

And many a rock which steeply lowers, 
And noble arch in proud decay, 

Look on this vale of vintage-bowers, 
But one thing wants these banks of Rhine — • 
Thy gentle hand to clasp in mine !" 

Even the writer — the only one in the company who had been 
stoic enough not to be beguiled into the respectable state of 
double blessedness — could not rest unmoved. As an impartial 
obsei-ver, I really could not help honoring his feelings. Under 
any circumstances but amid such enchanting sights, and after a 
separation, this warm expression of them might have appeared 
a little extravagant ; but, as it was, it seemed quite natural. 

Frowning upon the entrance of the Moselle and Coblentz, on 
the opposite shore, is the fortified height and fortress of Ehren- 
breitstein, the Gibraltar of the Rhine that baffled all the at- 
tempts of Louis XIV., and was only reduced by famine in 



Chap. XIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 87 



1799. Its 400 cannon, ranges of covered galleries, and im- 
mense stores of provisions, appear at present to defy an enemy. 
There is something very peculiar in the contrasts of the Rhine 
scenery. The gleaming of the sun upon the joyous river, the 
mountains on either side terraced to the very top, and every 
passable crevice gracefully ornamented 'with vines or green 
shrubbery that mingled vi^ith the points of rock, relieve each 
other like the light and shade of a picture; ivy-clad ruins, 
the nests of the robber-knights of olden time, hanging over 
sw^eet vales, and the white walls of cities and churches gleam- 
ing here and there, form a variety really enchanting. The his- 
taric associations and fearful German legends of this spirit- 
haunted river invest certain appropriate spots with strange 
interest. Above Coblentz the aspect gi-ew wilder and the old 
towns mo,re frequent. Passing the Castle of Stolzenfels (proud 
rock), now fitted up as a royal seat, and the ruin of Sahneck, — 
the decayed retreat of Oberlanstein, — the octagon Konigstuhl 
of Rhense, where the emperor and the electors used to meet, — 
the old fortress of Marksburg, with its famous secret passages, 
its horrible hundlock and chamber for tormenting prisoners,- — 
the pretty corn-fields and meadows above Boppart, — and the 
Castles of the Brothers, and several others celebrated in tra- 
ditionary story, we came at length to the ruin, the most impos- 
ing, perhaps, of any upon this noble river, the extensive for- 
tress of Rheinfels. Its founder. Count Diether, undertaking, 
some time about the middle of the thirteenth century, exorbi- 
tantly to increase the amount of pillage upon the merchand- 
ise that passed, conformably to the custom of the knightly high- 
waymen of those barbarous days, a furious quarrel ensued 
between the tradesmen and the nobility; and the former, not 
having had any lessons in the modern peaceable methods of 
corn-law agitation, rent — speechifying, and the like — determined 
on fighting for "free trade." Sixty cities banded together 
raised formidable armies, and in a few years reduced the Cas- 



88 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIII. 

tie of Rheinfels and every one of these "robber-nests" upon 
the Rhine. It is still used as a gamson. A little higher up, at 
a bend of the river, is a whirlpool somewhat dangerous, where, 
as the story goes, the beautiful and wicked water-nymph, Lur- 
lei, used to charm the poor boatmen with her siren voice. A 
salute from a man hired and stationed for the purpose at her 
grotto near by, awaked the reverberations of a remarkable 
echo. Farther on, the castellated ruins and hard German 
names increased so fast, that I gave up counting. Between, 
this and Bergen are the celebrated vineyards of Asmanhausen, 
and the plantation of Prince Metternich, at Johannesberg, pro- 
ducing the finest of the Rhenish wines. At length the banks 
of the river became tame again, my fiiends landed at the 
place below, and I stepped ashore at the fortress-town of May- 
ence. The only pleasant reminiscence that I have of it is, that 
of the statue to Guttemburg, the inventor of printing.^ After 
such a happy meetings and so exhilarating a sail, amid beauties 
the like of which I may never see again, this monotonous place, 
in the midst of a level plain, hedged in with a treble line of 
fortifications, the constant marching to and fro of the motley 
crowd of Austrian and Prussian soldiers, by whom in equal 
numbers it is garrisoned, seemed a sad change. The sabbath 
following, spent here, was one of the most lonely that I remem- 
ber. At sunrise on Monday morning, as I was waiting for a 
vessel to pass the bridge of boats, my hand was suddenly 
grasped. It was the chaplain to the Prussian troops, whom I 
had se^n in London at the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance. 
It was with feelings of sincere regret that I found myself unable 
to comply with a hospitable invitation, tendered with all the 
warmth of a German heart. 

Taking the cars on the opposite side, I passed along the 
level, well-tilled bank of the Maine to Frankfort. It was the 
fourteenth day or the middle of one of its celebrated semi-an- 
nual fairs. The bank of the river at the landing-place, and 



Chap. XIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 89 



whole streets, seemed filled witli large booths or temporary- 
shops, in which were exposed almost every variety of merchan- 
dise. The shopkeepers seemed suddenly to have preferred the 
street, and to have determined to give their goods and their 
lady-clerks an airing. Such a Babel confusion of tongues, and 
such a grotesque collection of human beings of all nations, prob- 
ably rarely occur. Costumes of the drollest kind, artificial pro- 
cesses and folds, that in any other but our own species would 
be regarded as curiosities in natural history — headdresses that 
would do credit to the invention of the South Sea islanders^ 
meet you at every turn. If my memory serves me correctly, I 
counted six varieties of the latter article in a single street. 
These singular forms of dress are generally worn by the peas- 
ants in certain districts, whereas in Bavaria, Switzerland, and 
other parts of Europe, each locality has a characteristic cos- 
tume, and the fashion is hereditary. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Speculation— Ariadne— Madame Rothschild— The Bergstrasse— Heidelberg 
— Baden-Baden — " Conversation House" — Strasburg — Basle. 

The general emigration out of doors, and the accumulation 
of a vast number of curiosities, human and commercial, from 
the neighboring country to the fair, rendering it difficult for a 
stranger to thread his way, in the general confusion, to the more 
ordinary objects of interest, I tried to obtain a guide. 

But it was, in the speech of trade, a time of general specula- 
tion. The very beggars seemed too busy. Several times, just 
as I was about to put some innocent question on the subject of 
the locality of picture galleries or churches, or make known my 
needy condition, I was anticipated by an inquiry if I had any thing 
to buy or sell, or perhaps some eloquent laudation of German 



90 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIV. 

tobacco pipes or razors. The word money seemed written upon 
every face. One might have fancied the thousands of Jews of 
Frankfort in the streets at once, or, rather, that all the people had 
suddenly become Israelitish. It was a scene worthy of the pen- 
cil of Hogarth. After meekly wandering about for a couple of 
hours, to little purpose, and finding quiet modesty at a discount, 
I put on a little of the consequential swagger, so unpleasant to 
most persons, and so effective with certain landlords and waiters, 
made a bold dash at a group more idle than the rest, and was 
answered by a little man in a large coat, of which the variety 
and brilliancy of the patches constituted a specimen of do- 
mestic mosaic. We went to the plain, ancient cathedral where 
St. Bernard preached the crusade and the German emperors 
were crowned ; saw the wonderful clock, that tells the days of 
the year, and performs sundry other feats — visited the (library 
where Luther's shoes are kept, the fine statue of Groethe, the 
house where he was born, and the room where he died, and at 
length found ourselves in a garden, where, in a pavilion built 
expressly for it, was Danneker's celebrated statue of Ariadne. 
It has become latterly the great curiosity of Frankfort. One can 
not deny its exceeding beauty ; but the position of lying, deli- 
cately balanced or suspended, as it were, on the back of a tiger, 
is more romantic than comfortable, and your gallant solicitude 
is awakened for fear she will fall. But perhaps goddesses and 
the like ought not to be subject to the laws of gravitation as 
other ladies; and it would be almost treason to find fault with 
what has thrown so many into ecstasies. 

The Jews' quarter, where they used inhumanly to be locked 
up early every night, still retains traces of old clothes and sharp 
faces ; and in one of its crooked, unpleasant streets we paid 
our respects to the house in which the Rothschilds were born, 
and in which their very aged mother still lives, refusing to for- 
sake this humbler dwelling and her people for one of their mag- 
nificent palaces not far away. 



Ghap. XIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPK 91 



The banks of the Rhine, from the mouth of the Maine to Stras- 
burg, being flat and uninviting, except as containing on the west 
side what remains of the once powerful free cities of Worms 
and Spires, since their desolation by the French in the time of 
Louis XIV., I took passage upon the railroad leading from the 
Maine to the Neckar, running a few miles in the interior, to 
eastward by the Bergstrasse (mountain road), celebrated all 
over G-ermany for the beauty of its scenery. Skirting the gar- 
den-like valley of the Rhine, it runs along the base of a range 
of lofty vine-clad and wooded hills on the east, with their inter- 
stices dotted here and there with churches and smiling villages, 
while upon their rocky summits frown the ruins of the fortresses 
of the feudal times ; and away across the river and fertile plain to 
the west is seen the blue wavy outline of the Vosges Mount- 
ains. We passed through Darmstadt, the quiet capital of the 
duchy, and touched the Rhine again at Manheim. At length 
we took a turn up the vale of the Neckar, and in the evening 
arrived at Heidelberg. If the landlord's daughter at the hotel 
was a fair specimen of the better class of German ladies, they 
are certainly capital linguists. After presiding at the hospitali- 
ties of the evening, and chatting very prettily awhile in French, 
with a mischievous smile, she suddenly gave me the benefit of 
several sentences of sensible good English. 

Next morning I sallied forth at daybreak to seek an early 
glimpse of its beauties from one of the wooded heights that em- 
bower that Eden-like vale. I had climbed up the face of the 
mountain to the ruins of the ancient palace-fortress that lowers 
so imposingly over the town, performed a tolerable pilgrimage 
on my hands and knees through its dark secret passages, roam 
ed sentimentally and sadly through the desolate court-yard, 
drunk from the gushing spring that once supplied it, mused, as 
had probably every visitor before me,- upon the defaced sculp- 
ture of the once finely-ornamented exterior, and progi'essed 
from the opposite side as far as what is termed the " Philoso- 



92 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIV. 

pher's Walk," when, as if by some happy enchantment, the first 
glow of the rising sun flashed upon the rocky crests and the 
neighboring spires, till at length it rested upon the fertile plain 
seen through the opening to the westward, caused by the wind- 
ing Neckar. There are seasons of lonely contemplation when 
strange beauty or desolation alike remind us of our mortality. 
Again and again had that valley, then so quiet and lovely, re- 
sounded with the terrors of bombardment, and witnessed the 
most cruel atrocities of modern warfare ; and yet the leveled 
dwellings had reappeared, the gory and blackened earth was 
green as ever, and both the destroyer and the victims had 
passed away. Vines were carelessly growing, and the river 
was listlessly coursing on as if fire and blood had not been 
there. And where was he who had laid the first stone of that 
tower of strength ] Where were the warrior bands who once 
feasted in those roofless halls; or th^ proud^ daughter of the 
Stuarts, in honor of whom its nuptial arch of triumph had been 
erected, and who had exchanged such a home for want and mis- 
ery, because she would be a queen % It was an impressive lesson. 

Of all the spots in the old world I have yet seen, were I 
compelled to choose, there are none that seem to present more 
natural attractions for a permanent residence than Heidelberg. 
It is not strange that many eminent scholars should have pre- 
ferred it as their final resting-place. Those who have read the 
descriptions of their recreations and strong attachments in " How- 
itt's Student Life in Germany," will easily understand why a 
place with so many charms should be the object of the most en- 
thusiastic regard by those who claim it as their Alma Mater. 

Upon taking the cars again, the next move was to Carlsruhe, 
the residence of the court and the place of meeting for the par- 
liament, or estates of the Grand Duchy of Baden. It is one of 
the youngest of German cities, having risen from a hunting- 
lodge in the course of about a century. Notwithstanding its 
situation in the midst of a level plain, the rare luxury of side- 



Chap. XIV.J LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 93 



walks and the comparative newness of every thing give it a 
neat and comfortable aspect. The streets are laid out upon 
the singular plan of radiating from the palace as a common 
centre, like the spokes in a wheel. 

Pushing toward the south, through a richly- cultivated coun- 
try, we at length took a turn to the eastward, and in a gap in 
the mountains, and on the edge of the famous Black Forest, lay 
Baden-Baden. Its name, like a double superlative, expresses 
what to a German is so dear to him, — that it is a httle terrestrial 
paradise of baths. The passion for watering-places that exists 
among all classes is really marvelous. With all who can pos- 
sibly afford it, there is a sort of general breaking up during the 
kurzeit (curing time), and a kind of joyous universal scramble, 
as we would say, for the springs. I constantly encountered 
crowds flocking to these places all the way from Brussels. 
Princes, statesmen, philosophers, bankers, shopkeepers, arti- 
sans, blacklegs, dyspeptic invalids, and desponding candidates 
for matrimony, are said annually to make this pilgrimage with 
th« regularity of the arrival of June. As if to dispense the 
blessings of these mineral health-fountains to the poor as well 
as the rich, the country abounds with them. Every little prin- 
cipality seems to have its Saratoga on a larger or smaller scale, 
and a great many of them are unknown abroad. They are 
generally nestled among the mountains, amid scenery affording 
delightful rambles; and from what I saw, I fancy that their 
visitors lead a much more free-and-easy, or, to use an express- 
ive home phrase, a more pic-nic sort of life than is customary 
at the springs of our own country. The utmost good-humor 
prevails, and the more troublesome forms and ceremonies of 
society, and distinctions of rank, are, for the time, thrown aside. 
A princess does not disdain the invigorating frolic of a donkey- 
ride upon the hills ; a grand duke and a tradesman may sit side 
by side at a table d'hote ; and you may converse with a sover- 
eign prince or fine lady without an introduction. 



94 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIV. 

Anxious to make the most of my time, in my traveling-dress, 
without changing or purifying, I posted off impatiently to a 
neighboring height that seemed to command a fine view. In 
this uninteresting plight I encountered several well-dressed 
parties, some of; whom were apparently persons of distinction, 
and received kind attentions and civilities quite unexpected. 

The ruins of the old castle are situated at some distance, 
upon a lofty peak in the midst of a forest ; and in trying to 
reach it without a guide, I lost my way in the wood. In cau- 
tiously advancing, I perceived ahead of me, at a distance, two 
suspicious-looking men, crouching as it were for concealment. 
They might have been hunters, or other harmless people ; but 
I had read in early life too many German stories of robbers, 
the Black Forest, and the wild huntsman, not to have a sort of 
superstitious respect for all the undefinable characters I might 
meet in these regions, and so, aided perhaps by my puzzling 
exterior, I turned in another direction, and succeeded in post- 
poning our meeting. - 

After much trouble I found the right road, and was amply 
repaid for my pains. The castle itself was dismantled by the 
French, in the war of the Palatinate. Good-sized trees are 
now growing within its walls. The prospect from its lofty and 
massive battlements is one of the most splendid conceivable. 
On the eastward are the darkly-wooded hills of the Black 
Forest; westward is an immense plain, traversed by the Rhine 
like a silvery thread ; and, skirting the horizon, in the distance 
lie the Vosges Mountains. Behind you are lofty heights; and 
beneath you is a sweet spot where three valleys meet, that by 
rich contrast become greener and softer as they descend from 
the rugged steeps around ; and strewed along a tiny river, 
formed by their united rills, are the churches, mills, and white- 
walled dwellings of Baden-Baden. 

If you have not visited the rest, after such a vision you are 
quite willing to take for granted the truth of the general asser- 



Chap. XIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 



95 



tion, that in point of scenery it exceeds all the other watering- 
places in GeiTnany. The castle and present palace of the 
Grand Duke, lower down, though not so old as the one men- 
tioned, is still an ancient edifice, and contains a secret judg- 
ment-hall, chamber of torture, dungeons, and rehcs of baronial 
cruelty, o'f which fearful stories are told: A passage is still 
shown where the horrible punishment called " Kissing the Vir- 
gin" was executed. The unfortunate prisoner is said to have 
been desired to kiss an image of the Virgin Mary, which stood 
at one extremity. The moment he approached it, a trap-door 
gave way beneath him, and he was precipitated to a depth be- 
low, where, by means of wheels armed with knives, he was 
torn to pieces. 

The hot springs, thirteen in number, vary in temperature ; 
and, besides supplying the baths and the gi'and drinking estab- 
lishments, are said to furnish hot water for some other purposes. 
That of which I happened to drink was nearly as hot as could 
be comfortably borne in the mouth. 

A magnificent edifice, in the midst of beautiful grounds, 
with a band playing near, and having at one extremity a 
place for refreshment and a library, was pointed out to me 
as the " Conversation House." On entering the principal sa- 
loon, a circle whose countenances I shall never forget were 
gathered around a large table, upon which heaps of gold and 
silver were lying ; and a man with a little instrument was turn- 
ing a wheel, upon which were black and red spots and num- 
bers, and proclaiming the result. Every sweep was helping to 
enchant or strip some deluded victim. It was the famous gam- 
ing and swindling-machine of Rouge et Noir— to me an un- 
pleasant sight. France, Austria, and Prussia have, of late 
years, laudably suppressed public gaming estabhshments ; and 
two or three only of the petty German princes, in considera- 
tion of large annual payments have stooped to license these de- 
moralizing concerns. 



96 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XV. 

The route from Baden-Baden to Strasburg lay through a 
monotonous but productive country ; and on both sides of the 
Ilhine I was somewhat surprised to notice the rather extensive 
cultivation of tobacco. Doubtless it is an opportune provision 
in the centre of a great smoking region. 

Having visited the cathedral of Strasburg, with its spire tow- 
ering above the pyramids of Egypt and every rival in the world, 
as frequently described, one sunny morning I took the cars 
upon the railroad skirting a chain of hills forming a continua- 
tion of the Alps, and in a few hours alighted at Basle, in Swit- 
zerland. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Styles of Traveling — Innocent Amusement — Basle Campagne — Lake Sem- 
pach — Arnold of Winkelried — Lucerne — Singular Tradition — Ascent of 
the Riglii. 

No country, perhaps, presents so many differences of style 
and taste in traveling as Switzerland during the warm season. 
Russian and English nobility with their carriages and liveried 
attendants, Parisian rentiers and London shopkeepers lionizing 
in a small way, literary characters supported by long staves 
armed with an iron point and a chamois horn, artists with 
fantastic hats and chair walking-sticks, German and Swiss 
students spending a vacation in a blouse and knapsack, and 
many other interesting varieties of the species may be met in 
remarkable perfection. Probably nowhere is a little self-denial 
in a few exteriors better rewarded. The fewer your wants are 
the better. For trifling luxuries, easily sacrificed for a time, the 
voyager in state is subjected to many more annoyances. He 
must miss the more wild and interesting routes, or move with a 



Chap. XV.] LOITBRTNGS IN EUROPE. 97 

cavalcade of attendants, with trappings that, when spread out in 
single fije on a mountain path, remind one of a trader of the 
Andes, or tales of journeyings in the desert, except that mules 
are not camels, nor bleak precipices burning plains. Each prin- 
cipal of the party must have a mule, and each mule a guide, 
besides extra bearers or animals for the accessories in the shape 
of small trunks and overgrown carpet-bags balanced; nice par- 
cels of hat-boxes, umbrellas and toilet-cases, symptoms of a cab- 
inet library, a flask of mountain cordial, a few very choice Ha- 
vannas, and other exquisite products of high civilization. Or, 
perhaps, from being forewarned of the fact that mules, either 
from the length of their ears, the length of their burdens, or 
some other cause, have acquired the obstinate habit of instinct- 
ively preferring the outer edge of the mountain path, as if to 
frighten the rider, or for some other grave reason, he manages 
to get a peep from Righi, or the Flegere, by being carried upon 
a machine like a chair upon a bier by several panting, perspir- 
ing fellow-creatures. He is too polite or good-natured to stop 
the party or those behind that he may meditate a little on a 
fine view, a glacier, or the glories of the setting sun. Having 
much to care for, he has many cares. In fact, his attendants 
and exterior indications of wealth create a sensation that very 
much disturbs his studies of nature. Little boys with minerals, 
little girls with flowers, extra guides that scarcely hear the first 
two negatives, and objects of real charity, take a particular 
fancy to him, and lie in ambush for him at every turn. 

In addition to his retinue and appearances, he speaks En- 
glish, and, though a luxurious republican, gets the title abbre- 
viated on the Continent to " Milor," and pays a corresponding 
penalty in the shape of a really exorbitant bill and perquisites, 
which mar the Alpine scenery for the next two miles. 

On the other hand, such are its advantages in a mountainous 
country, that large numbers, who would not be induced to do 
BO elsewhere, annually make the tour of Switzerland on foot. 

E 



98 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XV. 

Learned professors and others, who could well afford to do 
otherwise, have occasionally preferred this method. Any one 
traveling for health, or sincerely desirous to learn much of the 
country, and who has the independence and good sense to disre- 
gard the unreasonable people whose esteem is purchased solely 
by outside appearances, will, by going in this simple, plain 
w^ay, secure much greater im^nunities and privileges. You are 
free to go when and where you list. No one has a right to 
hurry you. Chatting familiarly with the peasants by the road- 
side, or entering the mountain chalets, you learn more of the 
people. You climb to wilder heights. If you happen to have 
a taste for geology, or botany, you can turn aside to pry into 
the secrets of every interesting rock or flower. You remember 
better what you see. Passing for a modest and moderate man, 
you are more honestly treated and less annoyed. Your fatigues 
only give you sweeter sleep, a delicious appetite, and you are 
astonished to find, after a few days, that your powers of endur- 
ance have wonderfully increased, and that you climb up Alpine 
heights with an enthusiasm like that of early days. 

Possibly my impressions of these matters may be a little ex- 
aggerated from having met certain rather marked examples of 
both extremes ; but I have thus frankly stated them for the 
consideration of some who may follow. 

So, partly as a restorative from the injurious effects of a pe- 
riod of close confinement some months previous, at the enthusi- 
astic recommendation of some friends who had tried it (as with 
most extraordinary remedies), I determined to take a medium 
course, to reduce my single self to the smallest portable dimen- 
sions ; to send my baggage to suitable points by the peculiarly 
excellent and safe facilities of the Swiss post-office; to render 
myself independent of guides in most places by the use of one 
of Keller's very admirable maps, with all the routes from the 
great roads to the wildest footpaths carefully distinguished, and 
the fine views, ruins, glaciers, waterfalls, and many other things. 



Chap. XV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 



99 



clearly marked ; and to compromise matters by taking the dili- 
gences and lake steamers on main and less interesting routes, 
and make pedestrian excursions of all the wilder scenes. 

Leaving, as a preparatory training, the fine old town of Basle, 
with its half German aspect and manners, I was soon in the midst 
of the charming rural scenery of Basle Campagne. The next 
morning was one of surpassing loveliness. Mountains began 
gently to rise, but they were so green and cultivated that they 
seemed to blend harmoniously with the sunny slopes and deeper- 
tinted vales in one pleasing picture. It was diversified by hamlets 
of white dwellings, orchards, and vineyards, and the winding of 
the young and foaming Rhine. The earlier vintage was just 
commencing, and the quaint costumes of the peasant women 
were seen moving quietly here and there among the vines. 
Distant echoes were strangely distinct. The numerous bells 
of the herds and flocks in Switzerland have a peculiar, clear, 
ringing tone, something like those which are used by certain 
musical performers, and the chiming of hundreds of these upon 
the suiTounding hills, as in pastoral concert, seemed to lull the 
listener into a kind of sweet forgetfulness. Suddenly, a peculiar 
wild warbling strain burst forth from a young peasant upon a 
height just across the river. It was one of those mountain airs 
peculiar to the country, the famous ranz des vacJies. 

As the sun waxed warmer I noticed a delicious spot on a by- 
road, in one of the valleys leading up into the mountains ; and 
being at liberty to indulge in every caprice, I turned aside, 
sought a grassy shadowed knoll, with a fine prospect, by the 
bank of a little rivulet, and sitting down, spread out a rather 
weighty pocket library of books and maps upon the grass, and 
attempted to settle the details of my yet undecided route. 
Little peasant children, attracted by red covers and pictures, 
came timidly near, and being encouraged by a smile and a kind 
word, at length peeped, with childish simplicity, over my shoul- 
der into the wonderful book. Sometimes I seemed to read and 



100 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XV. 

sometimes to dream. It was a happy revery that could not last 
long. Upon waking, I set off in the direction of Lake Lucerae, 
some sixty miles to the southeastward. Passing through Liech- 
stall and several minor villages and a mountainous portion of 
the Canton of Soleure, I at length descended from a lofty height, 
through the intricate windings of the pass of Unter Haunstein, 
and reached the quiet town of Olten, upon the banks of the 
rapid Aar. Aarburg, with its imposing rocky citadel, and the 
rich thriving valleys of the Protestant Canton of Argovie, slowly 
receded, and I entered the less pleasing and apparently less 
prosperous territories of Catholic Lucerne. The husbandry, in 
some parts, seemed as if it might not have greatly changed since 
the days of Tell. As in some of the primitive cantons, and like 
the custom mentioned by Saussure, in his description of Cha- 
mouny in the last century, the peasants seemed not content 
with subjecting their ladies to hard out-door tasks, but to have 
called into requisition the gentler sex among the herds. Quite 
as frequently, perhaps, as any other animal, milch-cows were 
seen attached to the plough or cart. The associations and 
trappings of these beasts of draught were sometimes of an 
extremely odd character. In one instance a stately ox and 
a patient horse were matched in harness at the plough. Then 
perhaps you saw a pair of oxen led by a couple of cows, with 
a singular kind of yoke lashed to the roots of their horns, or 
a cow in shafts, collar, and traces, assisted by a donkey. 
Some of these peculiarities I observed in other portions of 
Switzerland, and also in Germany ; but the combinations did 
not happen, perhaps from accident, to be any where so gro- 
tesque as here. The cattle were generally in fine condition. I 
was uniformly honestly treated, and there was something touch- 
ing in the manner and accent in which every man, woman, and 
child repeated " good-day" \guten tag), or some other hearty 
German salutation; and in the friendly inquiries, and simple, kind 
reception at the inns, in some of the less frequented districts. 



Chap. XV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 101 

At length, from the top of a little eminence, there burst upon 
me the pleasant prospect of the Sempach, a beautiful sheet of 
water, with its sloping shores, covered with orchards, which 
strongly reminded me of a view of one of the lakes of Western 
New York. Its attractions, too, were enhanced by the fact 
that its name is a souvenir of the second great Swiss victory for 
freedom — of one of the most heroic actions on record — the self- 
immolation of Arnold of Winkelried. 

Leopold, duke of Austria, son of him who was defeated at 
Morgarten, with an army of many thousand mail-clad knights, 
having cruelly ravaged part of the country with fire and sword, 
advanced along the north shore of the lake, burning to wipe out 
the former disgrace. To oppose this formidable array was a 
little band of fourteen hundred peasants perched on the heights 
above. The Austrian nobles dismounting, formed a solid phal- 
anx, and leveling their long lances so as to present a bristling 
wall of steel, advanced with loud cries of defiance ; and the 
Swiss seeming perhaps, to their enemies, in fear, knelt stilly and 
solemnly in prayer. Rising from their knees, they swept down 
the hill at a running charge, with a courage worthy of the 
Greeks at Marathon. It was in vain. The flower of a brave 
army was there, and not a rank of the foe could be broken. 
It seemed as if the bristling barrier was impenetrable. " The 
Swiss," says one of their historians, "fell one after the other; 
already sixty weltered in their blood. All wavered. * I will 
open a path to freedom,' cries suddenly a voice of thunder. 
'Faithful and dear confederates, protect my wife and my chil- 
dren !' Thus speaks Arnold Strouthan de Winkelried, knight of 
Unterwalden. He embraces as many of the hostile spears as 
he can, forces them in his breast, and falls. The confederates 
precipitate themselves above his body, in the opening in the wall 
of steel, breaking all with their terrible blows ; helmets and 
arms fly crashing beneath the heavy weapons ; the brilliant cui- 
rasses are stained with blood. Three times the principal ban- 



102 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XV. 

ner of Austria, steeped in gore, escapes to dying hands. The 
earth is strewn with dying nobles. The duke himself dies in 
the dust, struck down by a man of Schwytz. Terror flies 
through the ranks of the cavaliers ; they sound a retreat and de- 
mand their horses : but their servants and horses have already 
fled, seized with consternation. The unhappy nobles, borne 
down with their heavy cuirasses, heated by a burning sun, 
begin to fly. The confederates press upon their steps. Many 
hundreds of counts, barons, and knights of Suabia, Tyrol, and 
Argovie, and thousands of their attendants, perish. Such was 
the issue of the battle of Sempach, fought the ninth of July, 
1386 — such was the glorious result of the heroism and martyi'- 
dom of Arnold of Winkelried." 

From the above extract it will be seen with what enthusiasm 
the names associated with their wonderful early struggles for 
liberty are still regarded. 

Resting at the only inn, in a little village near Sempach, 
next morning I entered Lucerne. The town is finely situated 
on both sides of the clear, rapid Reuss, just as it issues fi'om 
the lake, commanding a fine view of the lofty peaks of Righi 
on the north shore, and Mount Pilatus on the south. With 
Berne and Zurich it claims alternately the honor of being the 
federal capital, and is the residence of the Papal nuncio. The 
whole canton, indeed, from the numerous crosses and pictures 
at the roadside, and other indications, seems strongly attached 
to the Catholic religion. It is the rallying point of the newly- 
formed league of the seven cantons, and the law by which 
Protestants are unjustly deprived of the rights of citizens is said 
to have been one of the causes of the late troubles. 

A popular legend exists, that Pilate, having been banished 
into Gaul, committed suicide by leaping from the lofty mountain 
near Lucerne into the lake, and they say his restless spirit still 
breeds storms. 

There was something touching in the sight of homely-clad 



Chap. XV.] LOlTERINGS IN EUROPE. 103 



peasants gathering from miles rpurid to the only hamlet church. 
In the way of their fathers, these simple mountaineers were 
worshiping God. And who but the All- wise could tell how 
much a faith, which I might deem imperfect, had ministered to 
pain, and sweetened the cup of sorrow and death ! 

Rest, and the invigorating effect of my previous trip, really 
made me feel quite adventurous; and being desirous to see the 
sun rise from the mountain noted for the finest panoramic view 
in Switzerland, I rose at three o'clock the following morning, 
and with, perhaps, scarcely justifiable presumption, managed to 
find the path. With the aid of a lantern and mountain staff, I 
succeeded, after a three-hours' march, in reaching the top alone. 
The morning, at first, was not perfectly clear, and fogs occa- 
sionally obscured the view. Yet the first gleam of the sun 
upon the ranges of snow mountains, on the mists brooding over 
the dark Lucerne on one side, and the churches, villages, plains, 
hills, and shining lakes on the other, was really gorgeous. 
The prospect extends over a circumference of three hundred 
miles, and embraces views of many spots associated with 
remarkable events. The victory field of Morgarten — the pla- 
ces distinguished by the adventures of Tell — the spire of the 
church where the reformer Zwingle fell— the mountain, whose 
slide buried the village of Rossberg, and the icy summits where 
the armies of Massena and Suwarrow fought, are all within the 
range. On a perfectly clear day, it is said thirteen lakes are 
visible. Leaving the unexpectedly large and respectable shiv- 
ering assemblage who had staid over night, or an'ived later at 
the hotel upon the top, I made the best of my way to the 
warmer regions^below. 



104 LOITBRINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVL 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Lake Lucerne- — Tail's Chapel — Night Adventure — Tour in Oberland — The 

Wengem Alp. 

On arriving at Weggis, I took passage in the little steamer 
that daily makes the tour of Lake Lucerne. Perhaps nowhere 
in the world is there such sublime lake scenery. As you gaze 
upon it from the town itself, though bounded on each side by 
Mount Pilatus and the Righi, yet the softness of less bold shores, 
the green skirting round the base of the latter, and the quiet 
bays spreading out on either hand give a more peaceful aspect ; 
but when you advance eastward upon its surface, it increases 
in wildness. Two mountains on either hand seem about to 
close the view; but_a narrow passage is at length formed be- 
tween them, and you sweep along gazing upon their frowning 
forms reflected in the water, till at once you take a new direc- 
tion round a sharp promontory, and discover the magnificent 
bay of Uri, till then invisible, v/ith its rock-bound shores, dark 
at their bases, rising almost perpendicularly, and tapering away 
into ragged, snow-clad peaks, far above. And then almost 
every romantic spot upon this famed lake has been immoital- 
ized in poetry by the genius of Schiller, and consecrated in the 
memory of the Swiss by the most thrilling recollections. As 
you set out, spreading away to your left is the bay of Kuss- 
nacht, leading up to the " PIollow Way," where Tell lay in 
ambush for Gesler. Just after you turn the promontory and 
enter the bay of Uri, the little green solitary ledge that you see 
between the rock and the water close to your right is Grutli, 
the spot where were held the mighty meetings of Werner 
Stauffacher, Walter Furst, and Arnold of Melcthal, in con- 
spiring for the freedom of their country. Farther on, in sight. 



Chap. XVI. ] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 105 



upon the opposite bank, and built upon the rock where the 
Swiss hero, unbound to steer the tyrant's boat in the storm, 
leaped ashore, is Tell's Chapel. Like many other objects in 
this region it is ornamented with rude representations of the 
events of his life, and incidents connected with the birth of 
Swiss liberty. It was erected shortly after his death, and every 
year there is still a grand religious cererriony performed in it 
commemorative of his deliverance. 

Happening to meet with a couple of extremely intelligent 
and agreeable young men, one of whom was from a Swiss in- 
stitution, spending a vacation among the mountains, a joint 
excursion was planned, and I staid with them at the little vil- 
lage of Altorf, near the landing. It is celebrated as the place 
where Gesler compelled Tell to shoot the apple from the head 
of his child. Early next gloomy morning we took the route up 
the wild gorge of the Reuss. The stream, dashing and foaming 
from rock to rock, between dizzy, dark precipices and over- 
hanging woods, rendered it a fit scene for the pencil of Salvator 
Rosa. It is a spot perfectly in character with the savage ren- 
counters which took place among these seemingly impassable de- 
files and untrodden icy summits between the French, Austrians, 
and Russians, in the fierce campaign of 1799. Perhaps some 
of the little villages here could hardly be kept alive were this 
not the route to Italy by the passage of the St. Gothard. Large 
droves of fine cattle, the staple export here, were being driven 
over the Alps. Having dined, early at "Wasen, the last village 
in the Canton of Uri, we struck upon a solitary wild path over 
the mountains, by the Susten pass, to the westward. It was a 
dismal day. The chalets grew smaller and more thinly scat- 
tered. It seemed a wonder how the famished peasantry had 
food for subsistence ; for the most extensive teiTaced patch of 
potatoes, the only article cultivated, did not appear much larger 
than the area of a cottage. Finally, cattle and pasturage dis- 
appeared, and we saw nothing but a few goats browsing among 

F* 



106 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVI. 

tlie clifFs. We had passed the last habitation : the mists grew 
more dense, and the freezing rain poured in torrents. We had 
ventured without a guide. A kid that had so far strayed that 
no efforts could drive it back, and which, like ourselves, seemed 
lonely, was the only living thing in sight. The cold increased, and 
mosses and arctic plants began to appear. Were those dimly- 
seen masses close at hand but thicker fogs 1 They were gla- 
ciers. Night came on sooner than we had dreamed. Hungry, 
wet and shivering, we began gloomily to contemplate the con- 
tingency of sleeping among snows. At length the steep, zig- 
zag path seemed for a moment easier ; but it was getting dark, 
and we could scarcely see any thing. We soon thought, how- 
ever, by the sound of the mountain torrents that they ran the 
,other way. The summit was gained. After groping our way 
in the dark with our alpenstocks for a time in descending, we 
gladly welcomed the sight of a human dwelling, and rested at 
the first mountain chalet. A plentiful supply of warm goats' 
milk, devoured with a voracious appetite, and a night's rest, soon 
made us forget our troubles. 

Next day we passed through a pleasant green valley, in 
which an artist was sketching, to Meyrin gen in the Canton of 
Berne. Here I reluctantly parted with my excellent compan- 
ions, whose time had expired, for a route along the foot of the 
higher Bernese Alps, in Oberland, which common report had 
represented to exhibit the most impressive views of the kind in 
Switzerland. It was dusk when I came to the baths of Ro- 
senlaui. The kind-hearted mistress of the hotel was tenderly 
leading a pale, consumptive girl backward and forward, for a 
walk upon the greensward near. I was treated with more than 
mercenary hospitality. 

The following morning, in pursuing the path over the Shei- 
deck, I caught a glimpse of the brilliantly-illuminated summit 
of the Wetterhorn, (Peak of Tempests,) the advance-guard of 
this magnificent chain ; and presently my ears were saluted 



Chap. XVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 107 

with a distant, grinding, reverberating noise, like thunder. It 
was the first of the day's series of the harmless avalanches of 
this season. Soon after I missed my way, till some peasants 
kindly directed me into the elevated valley of Grindelwald. 
Shaping my course from this, over the Wengern Alp, as com- 
manding the finest near view, I seemed carried along close 
abreast, as it were, of the principal peaks at half their height. 
In keeping with this upland scenery, a herdsman, even at this 
late season, brought strawberries and cream ; a girl, in Swiss 
costume, knitting by the roadside, sang Ranz des Vaclies ; and 
a sturdy mountaineer blew the w^ooden Alpine horn, till every 
ice-crag around echoed with vdld and sweet music. An hour 
or two after, I reached the highest point. The panorama sur- 
passed all previous conception. Wetterhorn, Shreckhorn, Fin- 
ster — Aarhorn, Eigher, Monch, and, loftier than all, the "vir- 
gin" Jungfrau stood arrayed before me within the limits of little 
more than half a day's journey, like a range of giants concealed 
in white drapery, and piercing the clouds. From natural causes 
it is said, that the snow on these peaks is more continuous, and 
of a more dazzling purity than elsewhere. I had fancied that 
the impression would be but a little exaggerated beyond that 
which our own winters often present in a hilly country; but I 
was mistaken. The sky above the region of clouds was clear 
as a mirror; and in the transparent air the sun appeared 
to glitter warmly upon them, as if they had been hills of 
crystal ; and the effect of this upon the clouds and veiling mists 
that floated round their breasts was to encircle the whole 
with a kind of halo, an ethereal radiance, that seemed not 
of this lower world. Having always previously thought trav- 
elers extravagant in describing these scenes, I shall not take it 
unkindly to be esteemed so by others. It was just then a priv- 
ilege to be alone. I recollect sitting down in a kind of be- 
wildered enthusiasm, and looking upward, and the immediate 
sensation was that of irresistible religious emotion. The sight 



108 LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVL 

of those glittering mountains reminded one of tbe descriptions 
in the Apocalypse of the tearless land of light. 

Frequently we can scarcely ourselves account for the charac- 
ter of our feelings, or trace the invisible links of thought. We 
may weep at the sound of a lively air that brings remembrances 
of a voice that will never come again, or the sight of a charm- 
ing landscape that we know was often beheld by eyes that have 
lost their earthly lustre. 

Perhaps it was because I had heard most of the happier land 
from those lips, or that the sight of dim emblems of that far 
dwelling reminded me of a pure spirit there ; for as I sat 
wrapped in a revery, my thoughts strangely wandered. In 
that Alpine solitude I could not help dropping a tear to 
the mernory of one departed. That scene, in fancy, is still 
jfi'esh before me. In engrossing occupation with what had 
passed, I little regarded the dadi abyss of Lauterbrunnen, into 
which I afterward descended, or the stream of the Staubach, 
reduced as to dust by a fall of many hundred feet, or the ro- 
mantic views s#en by moonlight all the way to Interlachen. I 
had never been so stirred by any prospect before. Prose 
seemed too tame for some of the emotions that found, perhaps, 
but an imperfect embodiment in a 

LAY OF THE WENGERN ALP. 

Pure, white-robed, heavenward things, 

As the beacon-hills of light 
Ye seem — the dark earth's betokenings 

Of visions veiled from sight. 

Deem this a. fancy wild— 

By its faith, the stricken breast, 
That mourns the dead, as a trusting child 

Must image yet their rest. 

The loved, by ocean cleft, 

In dreams will be ferried o'er; 



Chap. XVII.] LOITE RINGS IN EUROPE. 109 

The wrecked, on the floating timbers left, 
From clouds will fashion shore. 

On Jungfrau's snowy height. 

From this lower steep I gaze; 
And shining glacier^ sky, sunbeam bright, 

And cloud, blend in one blaze. 

From Lauterbnmnen deep. 

Like spirits to blessedness, 
Rise white-winged mists, that as guardians keep 

Round diamond palaces. 

And though '' eye hath not seen" 

The light of the great white throne, 
Yon mount to the fond lone heart hath been 

The type of worlds unknown. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Interlachen — Knightly Feat — A Fair — Taking an Observation — Lake Thun — 
Benie — A wandering Journeyman — Neuchdtel. 

A SWEET spot is Interlachen. Situated on a green, narrow 
strip, separating the beautiful lakes Thun and Brientz, and 
suiTOunded with gently romantic scenery, leading away to the 
Bernese Alps in the background, it has many attractions to 
strangers as a summer residence. 

There is something cheery in its lively stream and its white 
dwellings, and trim rows of trees. Not far away, too, are the 
ruins of a castle, which has connected with it a pretty legend of 
olden time. 

The last male descendant of a powerful race, its ancient lords, 
had an idolized only daughter, beloved by a young knight who 
utterly despaired of success by peaceable means on account 
of a deadly feud. Like some of the chivalrous adventurers 



no LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVII. 

who, in modern times, hastily visit Gretna Green, he had re- 
course to a bold expedient, and succeeded in scaling the castle 
walls in the night, and carrying away, as his willing bride, the 
beautiful Ida. Years of bloody strife followed. At last Ru- 
dolph, taking his wife and infant son with him, threw himself, 
unarmed and unattended, upon the old man's generosity, in 
the midst of his stronghold. The enmity and pride of the war- 
rior were in a moment overcome by the feelings of the father. 
He burst into tears, welcomed them as his children, and made 
the infant heir to his immense possessions. The day of their 
reconciliation was set apart by him for the annual celebration 
of rural games and amusements, the last of which took place 
upon the spot within a few years. 

The day after my arrival happened to be that of a Swiss fair. 
It seemed to be a time of general barter between the people of 
the mountain and the plain. Altogether it was a rare collec- 
tion. Men and animals, from the tall mountaineer and his 
wilful mule, to wayward cows, slippery porkers, and sheep 
and goats, bred in a land of freedom, sadly obstructed the 
streets, and by general contribution gave a kind of concert 
that would have done credit to the domestic section of Noah's 
ark. I chose a quiet spot, and took what in more sublime 
things might be termed an observation. The effect of such 
an impulse upon a Swiss village was, after all, not unhap- 
py. Smiling and ruddy faces were gleaming over the coun- 
ters of the little shops, and every fold of white, black, and pur- 
ple, in the singular female costumes, was carefully arranged as 
for a holy day. The men were generally clad in a kind of brown 
domestic woolen cloth, resembling the fabric often worn in the 
more retired parts of our own country, and dyed with the bark 
of one of our forest trees. I had never seen so many of the 
hardy race of the mountains together before, and I was curious 
to notice their physical peculiarities. It might have been im- 
agination, but I fancied that the constant habit of climbing pre- 



Chap. XVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. HI 



cipices seemed to have given the shoulders a pecuHar set, or 
stoop forward. Independent of the deformity of tumors, so 
common, the necks of the peasant vs^omen from the high Alps 
seemed unnaturally masculine — the effect, probably, of the ex- 
traordinary muscular exertion required in balancing the im- 
mense loads they so often carry upon their heads over foot- 
paths impassable to ordinary conveyances. 

On embarking to cross Lake Thun, the little steamer was 
heavily freighted with a dense crowd of human beings and to- 
bacco pipes. I mention the latter on account of their number 
and magnitude. It is said that when the Mexicans first saw 
the cavalry of Gortez, they fancied that the rider and horse 
formed but one animal ; and. if there yet remain any simple- 
hearted people entirely innocent of the ways of civilization, and 
the use of the fashionable narcotic, the sio^ht of the remarkable 
bulbs, tubes, and appendages suspended from the faces of the 
Swiss and German peasantry, and the symptoms of constant 
combustion, would surely be to them a wonder. 

Lake Thun is a charming sheet of water, some ten miles in 
length. Emptying into it on the south shore is the River Kan- 
der, which, within little more than a century, has deposited a 
delta of several hundred acres. Its formation has recently been 
ably investigated by Professor Lyell. A little farther on, in the 
side of the mountain, is the Cave of St. Beatus, a hermit of 
British extraction, who, according to tradition, dispossessed a 
dragon at very short notice ; and, among other things, is said to 
have astonished his neighbors unreasonably, one day, by ferry- 
ing himself across the lake on his cloak ! 

As you approach the western extremity of the lake, at the 
place where the Aar emerges from it in a pure, limpid stream, 
lies the pretty town of Thun. It was a pleasant day as I 
coursed along the valley of the Aar to the westward ; and the 
richly-cultivated fields, green meadows, and immense farm- 
houses, consisting of a barn and dwelling, side by side, under 



112 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVII. 

the same roof, contrasted strongly witli the sterile soil and di- 
minutive habitations of the jnore elevated regions. As in other 
parts, the system of irrigating the lower lands v^^ith the rivulets 
from the hills often prevailed, and w^heat w^as being sown in 
many places on quite a different plan from the husbandry of our 
own country. Four horses, or a corresponding force of some 
kind, drew a heavy plough, that turned over the strong green 
turf to the depth of nearly a foot. A large company of women 
and boys stood ready with hoes to dress the furrow finely, and 
beat it level, and without further preparation the gi'ain was 
immediately sown. 

In the evening I crossed the splendid stone bridge over the 
Aar, as it forms the eastern boundary of the town of Berne. 
The next fine morning I took a stroll to see the lions, or, rather, 
the bears of the place ; for every where signs, gates, and fount- 
ains with the images of Bruin bear testimony to his popularity; 
and he has figured upon the standard of the canton and in the 
affections of the citizens for centuries, very much in the exalted 
position of the American eagle in our own hemisphere. From 
his title, in old German, the name of the canton is derived. 
Several live specimens are still kept at public expense. The 
same greediness which occasioned the removal of the famous 
bronze horse from Venice, and the most valuable statues and 
pictures from Italy, induced the French, in 1798, to carry away 
their finest bear, as a trophy, to Paris, where he was long a fa- 
vorite. 

The situation of the city, on a, kind of elevated promontory 
in a bend of the river — its lofty, well-built houses, and clean 
streets, with showy arcades projecting over the sidewalks — its 
fine terraced walks — and, above all, the magnificent view of 
Jungfi'au and the snow Alps to the eastw^ard, give it many 
charms. 

As the diligence did not leave till several hours later, at the 
conclusion of my tour through the town I took a fancy to walk 



Chap. XVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 113 

on leisurely in advance a few miles, and amuse myself with any 
thing that might occur. On the way I was overtaken by one 
of those young, wandering journeymen, whom you very fre- 
quently see in Germany and Switzerland, and especially the 
former. 

With a pack of implements and clothes', a staff in hand, and 
a record of their journeyings and testimonials in the pocket, they 
are compelled by custom to subsist by their trade, and travel to 
perfect themselves for a given number of years, before being 
established in business. When forced to ask alms they are al- 
ways treated more kindly than other applicants. A register of 
places vacant is kept for their convenience at the head-quarters 
of each trade in every town. There was a modest reserve, in- 
telligence, jand pensive air about my new acquaintance that ex- 
ceedingly interested me. I was traveling for information, and 
concluded for a while to keep him company. He was evidently 
a genius. He had wandered over a large part of the Continent, 
and obtained the knowledge of several languages. Some of his 
adventures in Italy and Spain had been really quite romantic. 
His last place of steady employment had been Rome, and after 
being on foot for more than a month, he had passed the Alps by 
the Simplon, and reached his own country again. He turned 
into two or three villages, and came out every time with a sad- 
der face. Occasionally he grew absent, and sighed heavily, as if 
laboring under a weight of secret grief I could not feel happy 
in leaving him without delicately prying into the cause. At last 
he confessed that all his late applications for work had been 
vain, that he was penniless, and that he had traveled since the 
day before without food, in hopes of reaching that day the place 
of his birth, which ten years previously he had left as a friend- 
less orphan. He would like, he said, to see it once more be- 
fore he died. With a kind of shudder he at length spoke 
of temptations to commit suicide. " Who will weep for me V 
said he. " If I had but o?ie friend^'' — and he seemed choked 



114 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Csap. XVII. 

with emotion. The only thought that seemed for a moment to 
console him was of Him who feeds the " young ravens when they 
cry." Never shall I forget the mingling of enthusiasm and sor- 
row that gushed forth as we ascended an eminence command- 
ing a distant view of the spot which, in the absence of the sym- 
pathy or love of the living, seemed the dearest object of his 
affections. It was the simple poetry of nature. I could not 
but feel thankful for so instructive a lesson. How little ought 
those to murmur who in mercy never ejtidure the deeper suf- 
ferings of humanity ! 

A dinner and a trifle, which were really but payment for 
value received, and which it would have been cruelty to have 
withheld, seemed to make him more cheerful ; and there was 
something affecting in his repeated parting salutations from a 
distance as I whirled away in the diligence for Neuchatel. 

The country through which we passed was pleasantly undu- 
lating or hilly, and well tilled. At last the blue, calm Lake of 
Neuchatel, bounded on the west by the green ridge of the Jura, 
lay spread out before us, and a little way up from the eastern 
shore we caught a distant view of Morat, the only Protestant 
village in the adjoining Canton of Fribourg, and the place of 
the famous Swiss victory over the Burgundian chivalry, led by 
Charles the Bold. 

It was a very clear day, and as we rounded the northern end 
of the lake, and looked out of the window of the dihgence, the 
snowy peaks of the Bernese Alps, some forty or fifty miles dis- 
tant, were seen with wonderful distinctness, reflecting gorge- 
ously the declining sun in a surface of lights and shadows, 
blended with a slightly azure tint, and presenting an aspect not 
unHke that of the magnified surface of the full moon as seen 
through a telescope. 

At dusk we arrived at Neuchatel, I happened to have a let^ 
ter of introduction to one of those wealthier Swiss families, 
whose quiet, roomy mansions are so numerous in the suburbs 



Chap. XVIH.] LOITE RINGS IN EUROPE. 115 



of their towns. Their enthusiastic hospitality I can not easily 
forget. A carriage excursion along the lake was planned and 
executed; some choice friends were assembled, and various 
expedients were kindly contrived to make the newly-arrived 
stranger happy. This, and some other cases in other places im- 
mediately subsequent led me to form a high estimate of the 
social qualities of the educated classes in the townis of French 
Switzerland. It is not strange that they have furnished favor- 
ite retreats to many eminent literary characters. From this or 
other causes there seems to exist also an intellectual refinement 
that is very pleasing. With the language and polished man- 
ners of the French there appeared to be blended something of 
German sincerity, and fondness for music, and love of domestic 
life and comfort, that reminded me of the happy hearths 
of our own land. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Neuchdtel to Geneva — Savoy — Chamouny — Mer de Glace — A Failure — Al- 
pine " Curiosities of Literature" — Mont Blanc from the Flegere — Chamois 
Chase with a Walking-Stick — The Tete Noire. 

Early one fine morning I was looking back somewhat fondly 
from the deck of the steamer at Neuchatel, and admiring the 
prospect of the vine-clad slopes in the background, its houses 
rising prettily one above another, its neat rillas and the shaded 
pleasure-ground that skirts its shore. We had a pleasant 
breezy sail. After touching at several villages, we landed at the 
southern extremity of the lake, at the little town of Yverdun, 
whose castle, in the spuit of the age, was latterly turned into a 
school-house, and occupied by the celebrated Pestalozzi. Here 
a huge affair, something betw^een a diligence and an omnibus, 



116 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVIII. 

awaited us, and we made to the southward. As we were all 
** free and equal," I preferred a position on deck, and thus en- 
joyed the view of the agreeably diversified country, till at length 
Lake Geneva lay calmly before us, and we descended a long, 
steep declivity, and entered Lausanne. Having a pressing en- 
gagement farther on, and intending to return, I immediately se- 
cured a passage in the diligence, round the north shore, for 
Geneva. 

Night came, and I languished awhile in obscurity, tried to ad- 
mire the lake in the dark, waked up and rubbed my eyes at 
Nyon, the birthplace of Fletcher, and Coppet, the retreat of 
Neckar and Madame de Stael, and finally reached Geneva in 
time to get in bed before daylight. 

It was verging to the very last of the Swiss traveling season, 
and, after concentrating my baggage, which had made the tour 
by the package-post, in detachments, by different routes from 
the owner, I left the sights of Geneva for a future day, and hur- 
ried aw^ay toward Mont Blanc. 

A few miles out of Geneva, just after passing through Chesne, 
one of the largest villages in the canton, you cross the bounda- 
ries of Savoy, and enter the kingdom of Sardinia. The road 
continued on through a less flourishing country to Bonneville, 
crossed the rapid Arve at Bonneville, and again at Cluses, and 
then entered a long defile between two mountains. The roar 
of the river, the loneliness of certain spots, covered with trees 
and shrubbery, and the wildness of overhanging cliffs, rendered 
this defile a fit prelude to more impressive scenes. After pass- 
ing an innocent little cataract, which we were provokingly 
directed to admire, and other curiosities in a small way, wo 
again crossed the stream at St. Martin and left our conveyance 
at S alien ches, the last place to which any vehicle, except the 
Swiss cliar a hanc, penetrates. 

Having lost the magnificent view of Mont Blanc at the bridge, 
on account of the haziness, I accompanied, by invitation, an 



Chap. XVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 117 

intelligent Savoyard, who was a fellow-passenger, a few miles 
farther in the evening. 

French is still the prevailing language of this part of the coun- 
try since its incorporation with the empire by Napoleon. My 
companion gave me much political and domestic information. 
The reigning monarch, Charles Albert, is' said to be popular 
and liberally inclined, but to be greatly fettered in reforms by 
the influence of the clergy. Owing to a concession made with- 
in a few years, there is more religious toleration than in some 
of the Catholic cantons of Switzerland. Each hamlet, with a 
surrounding territory of a few square miles, usually forms what 
is termed a commune, which is separated from its neighbor by 
some mountain stream or other boundary. The domestic gov- 
ernraent of every commune is managed by a sort of municipal 
council of four persons, including a syndic or president, who 
hold office for a limited time, and recommend their successors, 
who are appointed by the provincial intendant. These village 
legislators regulate the rights of pasturage, the cutting of tim- 
ber, the erection and repairing of public buildings, and other 
local matters. 

A few loose stones supplied the place of bridges over the 
mountain torrents in the hollows swept by avalanches. Rather 
late in the evening we arrived at the mountain-hamlet of Ser- 
voz, and my good friend did not desert me till he had gone 
some distance out of his way to see me comfortably lodged 
at the inn. In the morning I resumed a track that wound 
among precipices, streams, and glens, till at last I entered a 
long valley, with a ridge of Mont Blanc on one side and the 
Brevent and the Flegere on the other, with white glaciers here 
and there piled like immense icebergs against the foot of the 
former that extended almost to the lowest level of the vale, 
while in the centre was the foaming torrent of the Arve. It 
was Charaouny. I was soon nestled in my room at the hotel, 
and, by the aid of a fire, trying to bring on what the doctors 



118 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVIII. 



would call reaction, after collapse from a cold morning. Since 
the first revelation of its wonderful scenery to the rest of Europe, 
by Messrs. Pocock and Wyndham, little more than a century 
ago, in place of the solitary priory, the annual influx of strangers 
in summer has created a thriving village, with four or five hotels, 
a standing army of some fifty or sixty guides and assistants, 
commanded by a chief, and long-eared cavalry in proportion. 
I was, like a solitary bird of passage, left behind. The boys with 
minerals, and the deformed objects of charity, seemed to con- 
sider me as an unexpected prize. In fact there was, in commer- 
cial phraseology, a general stagnation of business. I watched all 
day to get a peep at the monarch of the Alps, 

"On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, 
With a diadem of snow ;" 

but he was, just then, particularly invisible.- Winter was ap- 
proaching, and the fine days were becoming as rare as the vis- 
itors. Being assured by the guides that the clouds above would 
not interfere with the proposed trip, I started next day with one 
of these trusty attendants, and, after an ascent of two hours and 
a half up its wooded sides, reached the top of Montanvert. 
And there, before me, with bleak mountains for shores, lay 
the famed Mer de Glace, like an arm of a boisterous sea, 
suddenly congealed with icy waves of varied forms still lift- 
ed in air. The towering precipices, the reverberation of 
falling rocks or avalanches, the cloud-piercing Aiguilles, and 
the wintry aspect of all aromid, made it a scene of wild sub- 
limity. By clambering along the rocky shore, and crossing 
over the greater part of the width of this frozen sea, at some 
distance above, you are enabled to penetrate deeper into the 
recesses of Mont Blanc, and at length you are led to a rock 
poetically termed " the garden," which in August is said to be 
adorned with herbage and flowers, and which then lies like a 
sunny island in an arctic bay surrounded by ice mountains, I 



Chap. XVIII.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 119 



proceeded part of the way to this spot, when it hecame very 
foggy* so as to spoil the prospect, and with the advice of the 
guide, the excursion was, in legislative style, " indefinitely post- 
poned." 

I tried, by the offer of an extra fee, to get the guide to take me 
across the Mer de Glace in a place where i\, is sometimes prac- 
ticable. He at last yielded. We were each furnished with the 
alpenstock, a long slender pole armed with an iron point, and 
with which the guides and chamois hunters do such wonders in 
leaping chasms and scaling precipices. It was really astonish- 
ing to see how my faithful assistant managed to cross gaping 
crevices, slide down inclined planes, and mount pyramids of ice. 
He gave me a lift now with the hand or foot, and again with 
the end of his mountain staff, and towed me along: with the 
greatest care imaginable, till we had achieved about two thirds 
of the way, when new difficulties occurred, and he declared that 
we could not proceed farther without a hatchet to cut steps in 
the ice, and that the attempt was too hazardous at that place. 
As travelers are rather solemnly advised implicitly to obey their 
mountain pilots, I was submissive. 

Between the hillocks of ice are occasionally tunnels and wide 
seams or crevices, in which water is trickling; and the pecu- 
liarly pure azure tint of the ice, seen by looking down into 
them, is very beautiful. A kind of beach, termed moraine, con- 
sisting of a mixture of gravel and broken rocks, some of which 
are of a large size, by a slow movement and the lapse of years 
have been conveyed upon its surface, and at length deposited 
at the sides. 

The rude hotel on the bleak top of Montanvert occupies the 
spot where once stood the hut of loose stones and turf in which 
Saussure slept, and to which he wittily alludes in his descrip- 
tion ; and the cabin erected long after by an Englishman, and 
known as the Chateau de Blair. The visitors' book, hke those 
at the hotels below, contains names, readable and unreadable 



120 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVIII, 

observations, facetious, insipid, and sentimental, and some rare 
things not in any printed edition of the " Curiosities of Litera- 
ture." Among others, I noticed the names of a party of Ger- 
man students, from Heidelberg ; and beneath was an irresisti- 
bly comic sketch, probably intended as a faithful caricature of 
one of their number, fantastically dressed, mounted on a fully- 
developed mule, winding up the mountain, with a meditative 
countenance, and smoking a meerschaum, whose length remind- 
ed one of distillation. 

On returning to my quarters, I sat down to wait for fine 
weather. As the only guest in a large dining-saloon for days, 
the operation of eating, so social throughout the animal kingdom, 
became passive and lonely. I fancied there was something un- 
natural in the rattle of a single knife and fork. Sabbath came, 
and I went to the only place of religious worship near, and lis- 
tened to a sermon in praise of the Virgin. At length, after 
having tri^d in vain for near a week to get a satisfactory sight 
of the Mountain King, on waking up at three o'clock one morn- 
ing, the moon was shining brightly. I hastily rose and equip- 
ped, and, without stopping for guides or any thing, posted off, 
determined, if possible, to mount the Flegere, and see the sun 
tise upon Mont Blanc. I had no other companion but a faith- 
ful walking-stick, the object of an affection which time and dis- 
tance had only increased. Luckily I had no difficulty in finding 
the path, and, after a toilsome ascent, reached the then unten- 
anted house of refreshment, and the elevated platform which 
is the ordinary place of observation. There was an elevated 
range of Aiguilles, or needle-like peaks, in the rear; and, like 
all climbers, I wished to mount higher. After panting from 
steep to steep, I at length gained a satisfactory height. When 
the excitement had died away, I was enabled calmly to survey 
the gorgeous prospect. The sun, which I feared would be con- 
cealed by a small cloud, at length beamed upon the white crest 
of Mont Blanc ; and shortly after, all around us and far away 



Chap. XVIII.] LOITBRINGS IN EUROPE. 121 

the tops of the snowy Alps, as if by magic, were flashing in gold. 
When we witness almighty power in the boiling ocean that 
threatens to overwhelm us, the mind, distracted by danger, is 
the prey of various impulses ; as we gaze upon the cataract of 
Niagara, we behold a single object, which, however stupen- 
dous, fills not the field of vision ; but if T may judge from my 
own sensations, the awful silence, the towering height, the daz- 
zling brightness, and imposing array of which we are conscious 
upon the summit of a range of snow mountains, are often still 
more impressive. 

For a while I seemed fixed to the spot. I can scarcely now 
describe my various emotions. Our conceptions of things are 
frequently modified by accidental circumstances. I had just 
previously received the intelligence of the death of an intimate 
young i^-iend, of great promise. The recollection of the most 
manly virtues and amiable qualities can scarcely console us for 
the loss of genius that falls by its own ardor. Except when 
diverted by some new scene, I felt unusually sad. Never, 
perhaps, does the heart so fondly claim a beautifiil earthly 
vision as revealing the Father of mercies as when oppressed by 
affliction. There was consolation in the splendor around, me. 
Overlooking the scenery so sublimely described in Coleridge's 
Hymn at Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouny, one could scarcely 
help inwardly responding to its breathings. Just opposite, 
across the valley, like a frozen wall of waters closing a mount- 
ain glen, was the termination of the Mer de Glace ; from 
beneath which gushed the Arveron, and rolled on till it united, 
with the Arve. As the eye turned northward it rested upon the 
glittering peaks far over the Col de Balm, in the Canton of 
Vallais. Eastward, before me, were the lofty, clearly-defined 
Aiguilles Dru and Verte, and the forest-clad face of Montan- 
verte ; and farther on, towering above all its rivals, was the 
dome of Mont Blanc. 

Wishing, if possible, to get a western view, I left my position, 

F 



122 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XVIU. 

and crossed a glacier whicli was concealed from below, but 
was arrested by the ridge of high rocks and peaks before men- 
tioned. While I was deliberating, the sky became overcast, 
and it commenced snowing. As I happened to look back, just 
along the lower edge of the glacier, and within easy rifle-shot, 
was a slender iron-gray animal, much of the shape and size of 
a goat, with a share of the symmetry and agility of a deer, 
now bounding lightly a few steps, and then snuffing the air 
suspiciously, as if conscious there was "something in the wind." 
It was a chamois. Had I anticipated my good luck, I might 
have saved myself the trouble of visiting the half-gi'own tame 
one exhibited below. This, as I afterward learned, was one of 
their favorite haunts, and by a mere accident it had crossed my 
path. Thinking to observe its speed, of which I had heard so 
much, I gave it a respectful noisy salute, and it flejv up the 
rocks with astonishing swiftness and ease. With the intention 
of examining its track, I hastened to the spot where it left the 
glacier, and was surprised to find that its instinct had discovered 
an unobserved path up the precipice possibly practicable for 
me. So, after clambering on my hands and knees, and insinu- 
ating my walking-stick into the crevices for support once or 
twice, I succeeded in gaining the ridge, and reached a point to 
which I had before aspired in vain. But the chamois had dis- 
appeared. 

On descending to the hotel, I visited the source of the Ar- 
veron, and was soon after threading the wild glens, amid the 
roaring torrents and mountains — now bleak and bald, and now 
clothed with dark forests of fir — that form the peculiar features 
of the passage from Chamouny to the Valley of the Rhone, by 
the Tete Noire. There are tunnels cut for the path in the 
solid rock, over abysses that are really fearful. A violent rain- 
storm overtook me, and I took shelter for the night at a little 
apology for an inn. Next morning I arrived at Martigny. 



Chap. XIX.] LOITBRINGS IN EUROPE. 



123 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Distant Beauty— The Vallais— St. Bernard— ChUion— Lausanne— Lake 
Geneva — Revolution. 

From Martigny I took the route up the valley of the Drance 
for St. Bernard. It was a sunny day, that strangely contrasted 
with the^ preceding ; and the warmer vegetation, and declin- 
ing symptoms of vineyards at the commencement, had some- 
thing of a cheery aspect, though the scenery in comparison had 
little of interest. With some of the smaller and more remote 
Swiss villages, as with the famed Turkish capital, " 'tis distance 
lends enchantment to the view." 

The houses of the peasantry are usually rather neatly con- 
structed, either of wood, something in the manner of the better 
class of hewn timber dwellings of our own western country, 
or of stone, with plastered and white walls, that in a gi'een val- 
ley, surrounded with frozen Alps, or upon an elevated platform, 
contrasting with bare rocks and dark firs, have a picturesque 
effect. There is, too, an air of rural simplicity and prettiness in 
their uniformly-projecting roofs. By chance, also, you meet- 
some of the peasant women in the vicinity, dressed for a holy- 
day, and you are struck with their lively costumes, unchanged 
for generations, varying in different cantons. The headdress 
of the Vallais i& indeed quite artistical. But when, as some- 
times occurs, more especially in this region, upon your near 
approach, you are shocked with the appearance of idiot Cretins, 
with lobulated, unsightly necks, basking in the sun, some of 
whom have been taught just enough to hold out the hand for 
alms, and utter uncouth sounds — when you find men and ani- 



124 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIX. 

mals occasionally dwelling harmoniously under the same roof — 
when, as you struggle through a narrow, filthy passage, answer- 
ing to what is elsewhere a street, your olfactories are saluted 
with a compo*ind of " villainous smells" — much of the romance 
is lost. 

After passing through three or four villages of various sizes, 
1 at length came to St. Pierre, the highest this side of St. 
Bernard. It was among the windings and rocks in a forest 
just above this, in the crooked road, now superseded by the 
improved route cut by the enterprising Vallaisans, that Napo- 
leon is said to have encountered the greatest difficulties in 
transporting the cannon for his extraordinary expedition. 

A few miles beyond St. Pierre, just as it was getting dark, I 
supped at a little rude inn, the last habitation. Three Italians, 
drinking and playing cards, who looked desperate enough to 
be the heroes of tales such as I had just before heard, eyed me 
rather closely. From an unjust prejudice, perhaps, I did not 
care to sleep there, or to trust myself to a guide fi'om the estab- 
lishment. Being a little pressed for time, I determined to push 
on alone to the Hospice. Listening occasionally for unwel- 
come visitors in my rear, I traveled as rapidly as possible, so as 
to feel less the intense cold. Once or twice I missed my way 
among the rocks in the dark, but soon lighted again. At last, 
just as I was in one of the wildest parts, at a sudden turn, I 
was startled with the sound of human voices, and immediately 
a dozen men were right upon me. It was a party of Savoyard 
militia, returning unarmed from drill by a more convenient route 
across part of the Swiss territory to their homes. The lonely 
stone cabins, placed by the roadside to receive the dead bodies 
found in winter, seemed to have a ghostly air about them. At 
length, to my great relief, the moon -rose, and displayed rocks 
and ice hills around in savage grandeur. I could then see 
the high posts set to mark the road throufgh storms and snow 
drifts. 



Chap. XIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 125 

After crossing some beds of snow, I at length saw gleaming 
on a height above me the welcome light of the Hospice. I 
was thoroughly wearied and chilled, and the warm room, sea- 
sonable refreshment, and comfortable bed, which I soon enjoyed, 
were luxuiies indeed. Next morning I breakfasted with the 
monks, in company with two other travelers. The Clavandier, 
whose business it is to entertain guests, presided. It was 
scarcely possible to receive more courteous treatment, and many 
interesting details were freely and kindly given. 

The main building is of stone, strong and massive, with 
double windows, capable of accommodating some eighty per- 
sons with beds, and three times that number with shelter. It 
is situated on the very summit of the pass, where the snow 
annually averages seven or eight feet, and not far from the site 
of an ancient temple of Jupiter. To beguile the traveler 
detained by a stormy day, it contains a drawing-room, a 
piano presented by a lady, a natural history cabinet, a library, 
a few journals, and a chapel, in which is a monument erect- 
ed to General Dessaix by Napoleon, after the battle of Ma- 
rengo. 

Their race, of dogs, so celebrated, is said to be related to the 
Newfoundland and Pyrenean breeds, and more than once has 
been nearly extinct. 

A servant conducted me to the Morgue, a small separate 
structure, used as an open sepulchre for the dead. It is fur- 
nished with a grating to admit the light, and the drying and 
petrifying air ; and here for recognition, with their clothes upon 
them, and in the attitudes in which they have been frozen, are 
placed the bodies of those found buried in the snow. Without 
putrefying in this elevated icy region, they undergo a kind of 
dry decomposition. The effect is very ghastly. The flesh, 
hanging in tatters upon the skeletons, garnished with decayed 
shreds of clothing, and resting upon bones, the deposit of cen- 



126 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIX. 

turies — tlie occasional wliite color of the latter contrasting with 
the blackened mummy-like faces, that grin upon you like death 
phantoms — give this place peculiar horrors. Among the rest 
was the deeply-touching spectacle of the bodies of a mother 
and child, found frozen, and clasped tenderly together. 

The monks, usually ten or twelve in number, are of the or- 
der of St. Augustine, and wear a neat and becoming black 
dress. They are quite young, and possess an intelligence and 
polish of manners, from constant intercourse with the traveling 
world, quite different from persons of this class ordinaiily. 

Whatever may be our prejudices against a system generally, 
the liberal-minded must be glad to find such pleasing excep- 
tions and redeeming features ; and we can not but admire the 
heroism and self-denial of men who thus bury themselves 
in this perilous and bleak situation solely to succor the dis- 
tressed. 

Although no return is ever asked, yet as a great many of the 
poor Swiss and Italian peasantry are gratuitously relieved, as 
their hospitality is indiscriminately extended to those of every 
faith, and as they subsist now almost entirely by voluntary con- 
tribution, few who can afford it ever leave without dropping an 
offering into the proper receptacle, equaling, if not exceeding 
the value of their entertainment. 

Returning, I took passage a few miles below in a char a hanc. 
This singular vehicle is peculiar to Switzerland, and from its 
nan-owness and lowness is better fitted for the mountains than 
any other. Imagine a small sofa, set lengthwise upon four 
wheels, with a leather cover stretched over it, which rides side- 
ways, like the passenger, while a kind of box concern, let down 
between the fore and hind wheels, supports your feet vdthin a 
foot or so of the ground, and you have a tolerable idea of its 
construction. In the evening I arrived at St. Maurice, and next 
morning I crossed the Rhone, here a sluggish river, and entered 



Chap. XIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 127 

tlie Canton de Vaud. A striking improvement in the cleanli- 
ness and comfort of the population was evident. After passinor 
through Aigle, we at length came to Villeneuve, at the termina- 
tion of Lake Greneva. But owing to the revolution which had 
broken out in Geneva a day or two before, the steamers had 
stopped running, and I was obliged to go to Lausanne. Not 
far from Villeneuve, on a rock in the lake, within a stone's 
throw of the pleasing shore, stands the Castle of Chillon, its 
white walls springing, as it were, from the waves, are quite 
conspicuous from every part of this end of the lake and the sur- 
rounding shores. The fortress, as is well known, was built by 
the Duke of Savoy some three centuries before the Reforma- 
tion, and at the latter period was used as a state prison, where 
were long immured the reformer Bonnivard and other victims 
of persecuting cruelty. As I trod its damp, dark vaults — 
saw upon the walls the dim traces of the figures which the 
condemned in their weary hours had drawn — gazed upon 
the black beam in a deep cell, from which they were stealth- 
ily strangled, or stood by the trap-door where, perhaps, con- 
ducted in the silent night by a light that shone upon gi-im 
faces, the prisoner took one step, uttered a wild shriek, and 
a moment after lay quivering and bleeding far below, one man- 
gled mass, feelings came over me such as had been inspired by 
no other scene. I thought, too, as I descended to the dun- 
geon of Bonnivard, deep in the solid rock, and heard the 
waves with a dismal sound, as of a knell, beating against the 
walls, put my hand upon the stone pillar, felt the cold, mas- 
sive ring to which for six weary years he had been chained, 
and put my foot into the tracks which, to half its depth, he had 
worn in the unyielding rock, that there flashed upon me some 
faint realization of his sensations. How wildly must his heart 
have beaten when he first heard the oars of the Genevese gal- 
leys ! How the hope that had died within him must have 
thrilled as he listened to their assailing cries in the din of bat- 



128 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XIX, 

tie, answered by the shouts of the allied Bernese upon land ! 
And when at last his deliverers rushed into his prison to knock 
off his chains, and bring him forth to beautiful day, how joyfully 
must he have been agitated at the wonderful intelligence that 
in the years he had been unconsciously dreaming there Ge- 
neva had become Protestant and free ! 

Perhaps my own impressions were the more warm from the 
accidental circumstance, that almost in childhood I had, with 
the early faith that transforms the imaginative creations of the 
poet into li-\4ng realities, read the " Prisoner of Chillon," and I 
still had a vivid recollection of the cold shudder that came over 
me. 

I had been affected almost to tears at the agonizing picture 
of the death of the gentle and beautiful younger brother, his 
" martyred father's" favorite, and his "mother's image," and the 
frantic desperation embodied in the passage : ~ 

" I called, and tliought I heard a sound. 
I burst my chain with one strong bound, 
And rushed to him : — I found him not, 
/ only stirred in this black spot, , 
I only lived — I only di-ew 
The accursed breath of dungeon dew.'' 

The scenery all along the shore to Lausanne was exquisitely 
bright and beautiful. The contrast of the stem opposite coast 
of Savoy, the blue expanding lake, the white houses and orna- 
mented seats about Montreux and Clarens, the sunny shore 
pleasantly rising from the clear waters, and garnished with her- 
bage, vines, and trees, the amphitheatres and extensive slopes 
about Vevay, all covered with vineyards, presented a succession 
of singularly lovely combinations. 

My hotel at Lausanne happened to be not far from the site 
of the summer-house where Oibbon finished his history. 

During a delightful sojourn of a few days, I was so happy 



Chap. XIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE.. 129 



as to make the acquaintance of a daughter of the celebrated 
blind naturalist, Huber, an elderly lady of great intelligence 
and worth, as also of a much-respected "Wesley an missionaiy, 
known as one of their earliest laborers in France, since banish- 
ed by a decree of the authorities of Lausanne for doing good — 
and one of the most influential and beloved of the ejected Vau- 
dois pastors. I shall never forget worshiping in a private house 
with a company of the Free Church of this Protestant can- 
ton, who, less fortunate than their brethren in Scotland, dared 
not even sing, for fear of interruption from the intolerant mob 
without. 

It was a pleasant day as in the steamer we were gliding over 
the bosom of the lake, so celebrated in history and song; and the 
different aspects of the Savoy and Swiss coasts were as charac- 
teristic as those of the people. But all was excitement. A civil 
war had just terminated in Geneva, and we were little disposed 
for sentimental speculation. During my absence a revolution 
had changed the government, and when I arrived the streets 
every where exhibited armed men and placards. A distin- 
guished medical gentleman kindly invited me to visit the 
wounded with him in the hospital. It was a melancholy sight. 
These unpleasant associations were, however, greatly relieved 
by the kind attentions and hospitalities of Dr. Merle D'Aubigne, 
Drs. Malan and Scherer, and other members of that delightful 
literary circle for which Geneva is so famed. 

After visiting the place where the waters of the Rhone, so 
wonderfully blue and limpid, refuse for a long time to unite 
with those of the turbid Ai've, which ever after pollutes them, 
I began anxiously to think of choosing one of the three different 
routes for Italy. 

Taking the malleposte, with a worthy French Protestant 
minister, whose acquaintance I had previously made at the 
house of a friend, I was soon on the road to Lyons. It was 
getting too dark for us clearly to see the place where the 



130 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XX. 

Rhone buries itself under ground, and, in the literal rendering 
of a French hon mot, *' The loss of the Rhone was lost." Next 
morning, before it was light, we were set down in the streets 
of Lyons. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Lyons — Misty Visions — Sad Memorials — The Rhone — Avignon — Ragged Es- 
cort — Palace of the Popes — The Inquisition. 

Our affections, like most uncertain things, are doubtless 
much under the influence of the weather. There was brood- 
ing over Lyons, the morning of our arrival, a peculiar mixture 
of fog and smoke, highly efficacious in making darkness visible, 
and it impressed me gloomily. Not long after, it began to rain 
heavily at what might be termed the angle of penetration, and 
our meditations in the open air were sadly disturbed. When 
the storm had abated a little, I set out upon a tour of observa- 
tion. Plunging into the most densely-populated region of that 
portion constituting the body of the city, upon the flat tongue 
of land between the Rhone and the Saone, I was soon amid 
the dwellings of the poorer classes. Fancy immense high 
houses, all dingy and black, huddled closely so as to allow but 
narrow, offensive lanes between, built as if purposely to exclude 
the air and the light of heaven, and crowded like prisons, and 
you have a picture of the dwellings of the operatives of the City 
of Silks. 

Lyons, it will be remembered, suffered terribly in the French 
Revolution. The leading facts are, doubtless, famiHar; but there 
are sad memorials still pointed out to the visitor that recall some 
of its incidents with strange freshness, and traditions related, 
that ordinary history has scarcely preserved in their fullness, 



Chap. XX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 131 

Conscious that they had mortally offended the revolutionary 
tribunal of Paris, and of thei]- doom if conquered, the inhabi- 
tants defended themselves for a long time with the most des- 
perate bravery. But the assault was fearfully relentless. When 
the hospital containing the sick and the dying was set on fire 
by the red-hot shot that were showered up'on the city, the signal 
raised to excite the humanity of the assailants only drew a 
hea\der fire. The hotel where I lodged happened to be close 
to the public square, said to be the largest in Europe, where 
the infamous Couthon, carried about on a litter, gave the sign 
for the demolition of houses by stiiking with a hammer upon 
each door. But the spot with the most melancholy associations 
is that where these ministers of cruelty, fatigued with the slow- 
ness of the ordinary methods of execution, invented a horrid 
refinement. Under the superintendence of Collot d'Herbois a 
party of prisoners, two thousand in number, were tied, sixty at 
a time, to a cable, in a row ; two cannons charged with grape- 
shot wei-e brought to bear upon them, and the quivering vic- 
tims that remained with too much life after the third discharge, 
were then dispatched with bayonets and sabres. 

Toward evening I took a walk in the neighborhood of the 
heights overlooking one side of the city, and fi-om the more 
pleasant outskirts the town gained upon me. 

The sabbath morning following I was privileged to listen to 
a delightful sermon from a French Protestant pastor, whom I 
had met on an interesting occasion in London. His kind rec- 
ognition, the hospitable circle to w^hich he gave introduction, 
and the new and pleasant associations that were created, made 
me resolve not to be too hasty in judging of every thing in a 
place again upon a cloudy day. 

As soon as it was light next morning we w^ere steaming at a 
furious rate down the Rhone. Its shallowness, width, rapidity, 
and scenery in places, remind one of the Loire. Our filthy 
craft w^as laden with a mountain of merchandise and baggage, 



132 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap, XX, 

and enlivened by a party of soldiers apparently on their v/ay to 
Toulon and Algiers ; Frenchmen with curious caps, looking 
like Italians; traveling representatives of sunny Italy, with a 
iierce, careless air, as if their ancestors had worn the turban; 
and a party of quiet Enghsh, and a collection of minor characters 
sufficient to relieve the tediousness of the paroxysm of thestorm, 
of which we enjoyed but a brief morning intermission. The old 
churches and castles frowned more darkly ; and the vine-clad hills, 
white chateaux, and towns and villages scattered here and there 
in such a medium, lost some of their brightness. Either drought 
or a freshet affects the navigation of the stream. Swollen by 
the recent rains, it was just then spreading out here and there 
to a great width, and half burying the willows upon its banks, 
and we began to entertain fears as to whether we could still 
pass beneath the suspension-bridges. There seemed also to be 
an anxious bustle of the people on shore, as if they feared a 
repetition of the devastating flood of six years before. 

The little ancient city of Vienne, remembered for its settle- 
ment of early Christians; Valence, with its souvenirs of the 
youth of Napoleon ; and St. Esprit, with its bridge of the mid- 
dle ages, built by a process corresponding to its great length, 
from the offerings of devotees, passed successively in the dim- 
ness before us ; and at evening steam, with a powerful cur- 
rent, had brought us far south, abreast of the thick walls and 
imposing old ruins of Avignon. A fierce, ragged detach- 
ment, with clamors and gesticulations that reminded one of 
the stories of shipwrecks on barbarous shores, can'ied off the 
baggage in triumph, and I meekly followed to the hotel. The 
city is nearly on a level with the Rhone, and the streets in 
many places were nearly impassable from inundation. I had 
promised a friend, some weeks pre^dous, to meet him at the 
house of a wealthy English gentleman, who had become nat- 
uralized to the city by long residence, and to whom I happened 
to have a note of introduction. He was living in princely style 



Chap. XX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 133 

in the former residence of one of the old nobiUty. Next day 
nothing would satisfy our generous host but I must decamp 
arid take up my quarters with him for a few days. Soon the 
weather became fine, the cool, dry mistral, a periodical wind of 
these regions, began to blow, and the waters abated. 

As I sallied forth each bright morning, the remarkable quiet 
of the city, the cleanness of the streets for a French provincial 
town, and the cheerfulness that beamed from flashing eyes and 
bronzed faces pleased me. The old walls around the court- 
yards and gardens, so still and dreary, seemed, as in the Eastern 
tales of concealed magnificence, to be hiding something beau- 
tiful. 

It will be recollected that Avignon was a papal residence dur- 
ing the greater part of the fourteenth century, and it was under 
the agreeable inspirations to which I have referred that I started 
one fine morning, in company with a friend, to visit the palace of 
the popes. The site is upon a commanding platform of rock 
overlooking the rest of the town. In the spirit of the age of its 
erection the heavy pile that frowns upon you as you approach 
seems to combine in one group the purposes of a palace, a 
fortress, a church, and a prison. Running out as from a wino- 
of its fortifications are still the crumbling arches of a private 
bridge across the river, and a secret passage is said formerly to 
have led to the castle on the opposite shore. The gloomy old 
palace, with its immense thick walls, is now occupied as a bar- 
rack, and the soldiers were burnishing their arms, and amusing 
themselves in its halls, as if they cared little who had been its 
former occupants. Priests, and a solitary worshiper or two, 
were chanting their services in the dimly-lighted cathedral. 
The exterior rudeness of the architecture of the whole seemed 
indicative of the decline of the arts at that period, and beyond 
its rich associations there was little of interest. 

Presently we were shown a lofty square tower, with black 
stains plainly visible upon its inner surface. In the frenzy of the 



134 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XX. 

Revolution, some sixty persons, men, women, and priests, dying 
and dead, were hurled from the top of this tower, and buried in 
quicklime, and the splash of their blood against the walls had 
produced the ineffaceable stains upon which we had gazed. 
Yet this was the work of political fanatics, goaded on by the op- 
pression of centuries— of men who openly professed themselves 
enemies of Christianity. But we were soon amid the memo- 
rials of a cruelty diabolical in its deliberateness, and perpetrated 
in the name of religion herself We were in the prisons of the 
Inquisition. There were the narrow, dark, stone cells, where 
the prisoners were first left for forty-eight hours, to shake their 
fortitude ; there was the place of the sittings of the terrible tri- 
bunal ; and there were the contrivances to hear the agonized 
sufferer's whispers as evidence against him. Could the cold 
stones which we touched have related all they had witnessed 
of the deeds of men more obdurate than they — could they have 
given a sura total of the tears, the prayers, the groans, and the 
blood that had there been expended, it would, xloubtless, have 
been an appalling revelation. But without this they were sad 
indications enough. Strange feelings came over me as I stood 
in the chamber of torture. It was constructed so as to stifle 
the sound of the victim's cries. There was still the place of the 
lacerating stake over which he was suspended, and the furnace 
in the wall to heat the torturing-irons. Man had dared to pre- 
sciibe the relation which should exist between his brother and 
his God, and consummated the wrong by shedding his blood; 
and all this had been done in the name of Him who taught his 
disciples to love even their enemies, and who sojourned on 
earth but to heal and to bless ! Surely the followers even of 
the faith thus abused must rejoice that these are but things of 
the past, and that we live in a happier day. 



Chap. XXI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 135 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Exuberance — Vaucluse — Niemes — Roman Antiquities — Pont du Gard — 
Marseilles — Marine Discovery — Bay of Genoa. 

It was one of the balmiest days of the south, as a friend and 
I rode over the plain from Avignon on a sentimental pilgrimage 
to the Fountain of Petrarch, at Vaucluse. Even the dead 
green foliage of the olive-trees, like stunted willows planted 
thickly every where, seemed brighter than usual. My light- 
hearted friend was perfectly exuberant. Not an appropriate 
sigh, not a touching quotation escaped his lips. It was per- 
fectly useless to stem the current of his joyous spirit. I fancy 
that if Laura herself had been in the act of reading one of the 
tenderest sonnets of her poet lover, and caught the mischievous 
twinkle that lurked in the eye of my companion, and listened 
to his amusing drollery, she would have unbecomingly smiled. 
The spirited steed, the dogs, the driver, and the noisy urchins 
by the roadside, were just then fair specimens of " animated 
nature." Haifa dozen leagues were soon passed; we were 
presently nn a more barren, uneven country; and on being told 
to look forward to the spot, I could see nothing but bare rocks 
and hills. At length we came to a little river that made a gap 
in the latter, and, winding along its banks, we were not long in 
coming to a charming green spot inclosed by surrounding hills, 
like the happy valley of Rasselas. It was Vaucluse. 

I left all the arrangements to my excellent friend, as familiar 
with the place, and possibly, from poetical considerations, or 
the reputation of its trout dinners, he decided that we should 
rest at the Hotel de Petrarque et Laure. From the barren 
ledges above, and the intermediate terraces of olives, the trees, 
grass, and flowers assumed a deeper and deeper hue till they 



136 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXI. 

approached the brink of the stream. It had a faky aspect, Hke 
one of those representations created by the imagination of the 
painter, in its playful moments, when it would embody ideal 
beauty in what are termed fancy scenes. We traced the course 
of the Sorgues, now leaping prettily from ledge to ledge, now 
whirling in eddies, and again showing every pebble and speck- 
led tenant of its limpid waters, till we turned around a little 
eminence, and there, beneath the shadow of a precipice, clear, 
calm, and beautiful as the creation of a poet's dream, lay Pe- 
trarch's fountain. It is a circular basin some half a dozen rods 
in diameter, one of nature's excavations in the rOck, and in that 
sheltered retreat its surface is ever tranquil as a mirror. The 
winding river so wonderfully fed from its brim, the overhanging 
precipice, the rich verdure below fading away to rows of the 
fig, almond, and olive, and contrasting with the bleak, barren 
summits ubove, formed a novel and pleasing combination. In- 
dependent of the associations thrown around it by the genius 
of the enamored bard, there is a mystery about its source that 
invests it with additional interest. Why is it so unfathomably 
deep ] Why are its waters so pure 1 And why does it some- 
times seem to eject quantities of finny inhabitants 1 These 
questions have given rise to a corresponding amount of roman- 
tic speculation. Some have thought it to be the natural outlet 
to some reservoir in the mountains, and others, with a faith wor- 
thy of the ancients, have even fancied that it might be connected 
with Lake Geneva. If it had not been in the possession of the 
barbarians in the palmy days of old mythology, it might have 
rivaled the Fountain of Arethusa. 

On a little eminence below, and overlooking the fountain, are 
the half-dilapidated walls of an old castle that belonged to a 
friend, but is now called after the poet ; and near by is the spot 
once occupied by the garden which Petrarch cultivated, and 
which he has described as the scene of so much quiet enjoy- 
ment. We climbed up to the place, and were soon engaged in 



Chap. XXI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 137 

a horticultural discussion on the subject of a certain peach-tree, 
possibly a lineal descendant of one of the poet's, which finally- 
turned out to be an almond. Toward evening we started 
briskly homeward, and shortly after I was duly packed in a 
modest diligence, and conveyed in a few hours to Nismes. 

This fine provincial city is in the neighborhood of some of 
those mountain fastnesses in which the professors of the reform- 
ed faith sought refuge during their early persecutions, and it is 
still one of the strongholds of Protestantism in the south. I 
looked from my hotel on a bright sabbath morning, and recol- 
lections of home came over me. 1 had listened to one of their 
eloquent pastors, as to an immense concourse, in London, with 
a figure dilating, as to embrace them all, he had given vent to 
a Christian and hospitable invitation, which in its extent and 
warmth had thrilled every breast ; and, having declined a note 
of introduction offered me in Avignon, I determined to call 
upon him simply in the character which he had so generously 
included in his touching request. Nobly did the good man ful- 
fill his pledge, and the happy associations of a few days that 
succeeded can never be forgotten. 

It will be recollected that Nismes and its neighborhood are 
celebrated as affording some of the most rich Roman remains 
now known. The arena, if less extensive than the Coliseum at 
Rome, is in far better preservation, and, in spite of its occupa- 
tion as a fortress in the wars of the middle ages, rises above 
the houses a lofty, circular mass in the centre of the city, with 
its outlines as distinctly defined as if it had stood but a couple 
of centuries. 

The place of the emperors, and the seats of the vestal vir- 
gins, and of the different orders, rising one above another, and 
decreasing in rank to those of the slaves at the outer edge, are 
still mostly entire. It is supposed to have been erected during 
the reign of Antoninus Pius. Not far away is the Maison Ca?'- 
<ree — a wonderfully perfect heathen temple, with all its Corinth- 



138 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXI. 

ian columns and more delicate portions scarcely marred. Its 
history is rather amusing and curious, it having been success- 
ively converted from its original destination to a church, a hotel 
de ville, a stable to a convent, a place of sepulchre, and a revo- 
lutionary tribunal ; and it is now tastefully fitted up as a muse- 
um of antiquities. After visiting the fountain, with its rich an- 
cient sculpture, the adjacent temple of Diana, the singular old 
tower, the portal of Agrippa, I found the taste for these relics 
beginning to increase, and I determined on a little excursion of 
a few miles to perhaps the most curious of them all, the Pont 
du Gard. 

A gentleman in the conveyance kindly amused us with a 
short popular lecture on the curious dialect of the peasantry in 
some parts of this country — one of the things, perhaps, which 
deserves to be classed among the mutilated ** Roman remains," 
being a " transition formation" between French and Italian, with 
possibly a slight suspicion of the Saracen. 

Near sunset we came to the small River Garden, where we 
alighted, and I took a little walk along its bank, when presently 
there was before me a lofty structure of masonry obstructing 
the view and stretching across the whole valley nearly nine 
hundred feet in length, and almost two hundred feet in height 
in the centre. It is composed of three rows of arches, decreas- 
ing in size as they increase in height, and from a lower tier is a 
projection that is still used by conveyances for its original pur- 
pose of a bridge. But the great design of this immense struc- 
ture would now be accomplished with a few metal pipes. It 
was to convey water across the valley, and it formed but a part 
of a Roman aqueduct, some twenty-five miles in length, to sup- 
ply the city of Nismes. I began at one end, and, encouraged 
by some fellow-travelers, equally juvenile in their tastes, suc- 
ceeded, at the expense of sundry admonitions from the stone 
above upon my organs of reflection, in scrambling through the 
water-pipe from one end to the other. I finished with the thor- 



Chap. XXI.]' LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 139 

ough conviction that the cement was quite as hard as in the time 
of the Romans. 

I had lost a good deal of rest in some little preparations for 
leaving France, and writing letters to friends, and my sensations 
and dreams in the diligence, after leaving Nismes, were rather 
unusual. I remembered in my natural senses being hoisted 
with the lumbering conveyance upon the railroad, and then there 
was a misty recollection of an unearthly whistling and puffing : 
after a while I revived for a moment, and felt an unusual vibra- 
tory motion, and we were oscillating, horses and all, upon a 
long suspension-bridge, over a broad, rapid river, which I was 
informed on credible authority was the Rhone. I presently 
relapsed into somnolency, and on half waking a second time, 
fancied, in the dark, that some of the passengers' heads had 
grown to an enormous size. They were merely the hoods of 
the singular dress of some peasant women who had recently 
joined us. Then came ludicrous minglings of fictitious adven- 
tures and real accidents, and the gradual transition from 
dreaming sleep to reality, till the donkeys with panniers, or- 
anges, and wood, and the thronging market-women in the thor- 
oughfare, became more and more distinct, when with an effort 
I thrust my head out of the window, and there, a little in the 
distance, was the city of Marseilles ; and in strange loveliness, 
as it caught the new-born sunbeams, there, too, lay the Medi- 
terranean. I shall never forget the ecstasy of that moment. 
The throbbing of my brain was gone, I was quite refreshed, 
and the sea-breeze that came soothingly to fan my temples was 
delicious. Then how many strange reminiscences of schoolboy 
lore came over me ! I had listened to marvelous tales of ficti- 
tious relics till sick of them ; but there was no deception there : 
it was the very sea upon which, Hke the nautilus, man had first 
spread the tiny sail. Names, each a key-note to some thrilling 
strain of olden time, or index-word of the eventful past, came 
thick and fast: the fleet of Agamemnon, Ulysses, Eneas, Sala- 



140 LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXI. 

mis, Tyre, Carthage, Rome, Actium, the journeying of St. 
Paul, and a thousand things, sacred and profane, were among 
its rich associations. 

I could never before tell satisfactorily whether the sea was 
green or blue; but perhaps it was from the peculiar reflection 
of the bright Italian sky, or because the view was taken before 
breakfast, I thought the waves were incontestably of a beautiful 
blue. I was soon awakened from this pleasing revery by being 
let down amid a motley collection of lively Frenchmen, gruff 
English sailors, long-bearded Jews, Greeks with r*ed caps and 
pantaloons that grew more extensive as they descended, un- 
compromising turbans, shirts of every hue, and all the fanciful 
representations of the poetical East. 

I embarked on board one of the steamers in the bay, and we 
had a delicious sail along the coast, peeping into Toulon and 
Nice, and gazing on the fairy-indented shores, now soft and 
green, and now stern and bald with the projecting Apennines, 
till, as if by enchantment, there lay before us an inviting bay ; 
and as we entered, the beautiful panorama of imposing palaces, 
churches, and terraced gardens became more and more distinct, 
and we landed in Genoa, " the proud." 



Chap. XXII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 141 



CHAPTER XXII. 

« Fond Anticipation"— Genoa— Ancient Costume— Shadowy Reflections- 
Politics and Trade— Palaces— Chiesa Annunciata. 

There is, doubtless, a great deal in making up one's mind to 
be pleased with a thing beforehand. Poetry had yielded to 
nausea and empty stomach (a valuable fact) ; the " blue Medi- 
terranean" had become as ordinary salt water, and we had 
longed for the shore. It had seemed, too, as if nothing earthly 
could be more lovely, as we had approached it, than the pros^ 
pect of Genoa, sweetly nestled in an amphitheatre of hills, and 
like a crescent encircling a charming bay, fanned only by the 
south wind ; and as our eyes had surveyed its palaces, churches, 
convents, and gardens, pleasantly mingled, and rising range 
after range far up the mountain, it had appeared as if it must 
be strangely dehghtful to roam there. And so it proved. To 
some it was the first invasion of the land of song and macaroni. 
There was romance in the porters' Italian, though diluted with 
French, and music in the placards and names of the streets. 
Recent rains had garnished the old painted walls, cleanly swept 
the streets, and purified the air. The sun was cheerily shining, 
and the sea-breeze gently breathing, and earth, sea, and sky 
were again beautiful. It was one of those delicious southern 
mornings in autumn, like the spring time of our own chme, 
when one feels in love with all around. As if in good humor 
with the fine weather, all Genoa appeared in motion. The 
mules jingled their little bells, the market-women praised their 
wares, files of Sardinian soldiers in blue and red uniform 
primly passed, and even the fat monks with the cowl and dang- 
ling rope, and the grave-looking priests in long, black dresses, 
silk stockings, and turned-up hats, seemed livelier than usual. 
The moment I had secured quarters, I started oif in a fit of en- 



142 LOTTERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIL 

thusiasra for a ramble. I was soon pleasantly bewildered among 
fine old palaces, with gi'eat marble steps, decorated above with 
lions and hybrid animals that never existed, representing the 
armorial devices of their former owners ; massive churches ; vast 
embankments filling up ravines ; piles of brick and mortar, 
in the style of the Tower of Babel, and lofty teiTaces covered 
with the oleander, fig, and orange that reminded one of the 
hanging-gardens of olden time. There is a singular air of grand- 
eur about every thing, and it is no wonder that the fervid, im- 
aginative Italians should have given this romantic city the epi- 
thet of La Superba. The closeness of the streets is compensated 
by their increased coolness, their cleanliness, and the magnificent 
views that break upon you from almost every point. I strolled 
on, seeming ever to go up hill, and never to reach the top ; now 
gazing at a fine edifice, then admiring the trappings of an in- 
teresting donkey ; again stopping to listen to~ the gambols of a 
troop of Genoese children with laughing black eyes, and then 
perhaps undertaking an exploring expedition up a mysterious 
winding passage, that branched off and grew narrower and nar- 
rower, to the serious inconvenience of large people, till at last 
it terminated against a brick wall with a little gate affording a 
side-view of a court-yard with a dilapidated fountain, a noisy 
watch-dog, and a ferocious animal or two in stone that needed 
repairing. At last I came to a fine avenue of trees, with seats 
beneath them, and set down to indulge in a day-di^eam. How 
imposing were still the ruins of that ancient sea-queen ! The 
dust of centuries seemed to rest lightly there. A few touches 
to cracked and dingy walls, a little garnishing of marble steps 
and halls, and cleansing of old pictures, and all would be fresh 
again as in the days of the Dorias. The wealth that had so 
strongly cemented those imposing piles had been gathered from 
every clime. What a lesson on the powesr of freedom and com- 
merce ! From that sea-born city has issued a force that had 
crushed Pisa, and besieged Venice in the height of her glory 



Chap. XXII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 143 

in her own lagunes ; her fleets had assisted to ferry over ar- 
mies of Crusaders ; and she had colonized rich possessions in 
the Mediterranean and Black seas, and encroached upon the 
suburbs of Constantinople. Her enterprise had given birth to 
the daring genius which had led the way to an unknown conti- 
nent ; the fortune of a single citizen had fitted out a fleet that 
had turned the scale in a conflict between two of the first mon- 
archs of Europe, and delivered his country ; and the draining 
of her bank by patriotic English merchants had delayed for a 
year the Spanish Armada, and deranged the monetary aflairs 
of the world. 

I was getting into the sublime humor that sometimes comes 
over one almost unawares, under strong temptation, when my 
attention was diverted by some odd-looking peasants, and a ve- 
hicle laden with a curious article of merchandise. Possibly it 
was only its near relative inflated with a solid or fluid, but it 
looked like a sheep with its coat turned, in Russian style, and 
the head and extremities absorbed, and it reminded one of the 
descriptions of the Arab water-sack. 

Presently a ti'oop of girls, possibly from an Italian boai'ding- 
school, with innocent, happy faces, came tripping along with 
their long white scarfs gracefully thrown over the head, and the 
ends floating in the breeze. The females of nearly all classes still 
retain this somewhat singular part of their ancient national cos- 
tume. Like most peculiarities of this kind, it is adapted to the 
local circumstances of a fine climate and nari'ow streets, shaded 
by lofty houses. It is the simplest form of headdress imagina- 
ble, such as one might almost fancy Eve herself to have invent- 
ed some fine evening. A piece of thin muslin, of the texture 
and appearance of a white veil, some yards in length, is merely 
thrown sideways loosely over the head, so as to expose the fore- 
head and face, while the two free ends, hanging down on each 
side in front, are retained by the folded arms; and it gives the 
wearers a sort of bridal appearance that is quite poetical. 



144 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXII. 

Genoa is to some extent a free port, a space being set off for 
the storage of goods for reshipment. The increase in latter 
years in the trade of the Mediterranean, and the resumption 
of intercourse with India by the ancient channel, have given a 
new impulse to its trade ; and it is a principal port for the 
commerce of the kingdom of Sardinia, part of Lombardy, and 
even Switzerland. If one can judge by the newly-erected forts, 
that tower like Bastiles in the middle of the town, to overawe 
the citizens, and the throng of soldiers, the King of Sardinia 
intends to keep possession for some time of this handsome pres- 
ent from the Congress of Vienna. Of course, the oldest inhab- 
itants can recollect the time when it was an independent repub- 
lic, and there are many ardent spirits impatient of the present 
yoke. A strong feeling of nationality still exists. Shortly be- 
fore my visit, the foundation of a pedestal for a magnificent 
statue of Columbus was laid, amid great enthusiasm, at the an- 
nual meeting of an association of literary men, comprising some 
of the most enlightened spirits of Italy, and headed by the 
Prince of Canino, son of Lucien Bonaparte. The city has 
been the seat of at least one formidable conspiracy for the over- 
throw of the present government. But the authorities are evi- 
dently on the alert. The fortifications, so wonderfully defended 
by the indomitable Massena, have been materially strengthened. 
A continuous range of forts commands the semicircular mount- 
ain ridge around the city, which was the scene of so many 
bloody conflicts between the Austrians and French, during the 
memorable siege. 

The grandeur and number of their palaces give one an exalt- 
ed idea of the power and opulence of the ancient aristocracy. 
A single street, the splendid Strada Nuova, contains some thir- 
teen of these princely edifices withia a short distance. Their 
entrances are usually very imposing, often presenting a lofty 
front and a fine, open hall, ornamented with columns, and lead- 
ing to a court-yard visible from tlie street, surrounded by ar- 



I 
Ghap. XXIL] LOITERINGS in EUROPE. 145 

cades, with the arches resting upon pillars, and terminated by 
a grand staircase, leading up on each side ; and in the back- 
ground is frequently a little garden filled with orange-trees, 
whose dark foliage, contrasting finely with the marble of the 
sides and foreground, fills up the perspective, and adds a finish 
to the picture. Many of them are still enriched by choice 
paintings of the best Flemish and Italian masters. 

As you approach the city from the water, perhaps the 
most striking of them all, from its isolated position and its ex- 
tensive gardens, running down toward the sea, is the palace 
given to the great Andrew Doria, the restorer of the republic, 
and friend of the Emperor Charles V. A somewhat pompous 
Latin inscription extends across the whole front, reminding one 
of the large letters used by the venders of sea-stores. From 
one of the upper stories a gallery leads across the street to, a 
very high-terraced garden, in front of which is placed a colos- 
sal statue of Jupiter guarding the tomb of a favorite dog, pre- 
sented to Doria by his imperial patron, and visible at some dis- 
tance. 

The passion for display is exhibited in the profuse decora- 
tions of the churches. A day or two after I landed, I went to 
high mass at the Chiesa Annunciata. This church, like many 
others in Genoa, was built at the expense of a single family. 
It was one of the most lavishly-ornamented I had ever seen. 
The vaulted ceiling, and the whole interior, seemed one rich 
array of variegated marble and gold. It was crowded with 
worshipers, constantly coming and going. Yet to a Protestant, 
taught by absence to cherish the institutions of a happy home 
more dearly than ever^ the confession, the lowly bowing and the 
upturned eye, the swelling anthem and the chanted prayer of 
the morning, naturally seemed a strange contrast to the noisy 
streets, the thronged vehicles of pleasure, and the placarded ball 
and play of the sabbath evening. 

G 



146 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIII. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Sea Retkement — Leghorn — Toleration — Civita Vecchia — A Dilemma — The 

Campagna — Rome. 

One balmy, breezy day, from the deck of a Neapolitan 
steamer, we indulged in a parting gaze at beautiful Genoa. 
We were crowded with a multitude of curious or devout pil- 
grims on their way to Rome, to grace with their presence the 
grand inaugural ceremony of the pope taking possession of St. 
John in Lateran. In a few hours the wind freshened, the cap- 
tain stormed, the steward grew amiable, the deck passengers 
crawled under the carriages, and we retired to our berths to 
dream of steam-engines and frightful convulsions. As we af- 
terwards found, however, our brave commander was really a 
worthy specimen of a Neapolitan — rough, but good-natured — 
only gifted with a little sea eloquence for trying occasions ; and 
when he was in a gentler mood, and deigned, through a smile, 
to unveil a fine set of teeth, his bronzed face would sometimes 
glisten as with the fluid that calms the troubled waves. 

Next morning we ran into the harbor of Leghorn, and ob- 
tained the furlough of a few hours on shore. The port was 
crowded with merchantmen of different nations; and gangs of 
criminals condemned to the galleys, with soldiers at their heels, 
were working dredging-machines and toiling about the docks. 
After paying a fee to the police for entrance, we were soon 
rambling about the town. Like many other thriving spots in 
the world, it is a monument of the effects of industry and tol- 
eration. At the middle of the sixteenth century it did not con- 
tain a thousand inhabitants ; but, shortly after, Ferdinand L 
made it an asylum for the persecuted of every creed, and in- 
vited the Jews, just driven out of Spain by the Inquisition, to 



Chap. XXIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUEOPE. 147 



settle there. The same enlightened religious freedom is still 
maintained by the Tuscan government. Until the present cen- 
tury it contained the only English burying-ground in Italy. To 
foster its trade, the custom-house is placed at the outside bar- 
rier, so that it is completely a free port ; and the railroad to 
Pisa, which will shortly be completed to Florence, and steam- 
navigation, have helped to make it a place of much commercial 
activity. In fact, we were continually pestered by hawkers and 
brokers, refusing to hear a negative, and humoring our foreign 
accent by afflictive French and English — now eloquently expa- 
tiating on the edge of a razor, or again pointing, wdth Italian 
energy, to a neighboring woolen-shop, where, in the speech of 
trade, was a chance for speculation. The city is situated on a 
level shore, whose monotony is somewhat relieved by the pros- 
pect of the height of Monte Nero, a little w^ay off, crowned with 
a monastery and several villas. On returning to embark, I 
stopped to look at a fine statue of Ferdinand 1., near the basin. 
It is surrounded by an exceedingly effective group of four Turk- 
ish captives in chains, with beseeching agony in their coun- 
tenances, said to have been modeled from some prisoners that 
attracted his attention, who were taken at the battle of Le- 

panto. 

A slight competition among the watermen and a little bustle 
on board, and our craft was again steaming southward in the 
open sea. It was bright moonlight, and an elderly, sociable 
EngUsh gentleman remained w^ith me on deck till near mid- 
night, looking out for the island of Elba. Our friend had been 
in the service, and by good luck had visited the island, and had 
an introduction to Napoleon during his residence there, and he 
kindly offered to point out the place. At last the island dimly 
appeared, and on coming abreast of it my companion directed 
attention to a dent in the shore, where the lights were gleaming. 
The island now belongs to Tuscany. 
, Next morning we neared the mainland, and made for Civita 



143 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIII. 

Vecchia. The massive bulwarks and bright walls of its port 
have withstood the elements, with little damage, since their 
erection by the Emperor Trajan, and still present a rather 
imposing aspect toward the sea. But our meditations of Ro' 
man antiquities were soon disturbed by a ragged detachment, 
that escorted us and our precious effects to the custom-house. , 
One would think that, from its name, a passport was intended 
to facilitate one's progress; but it seems in Italy just the con- 
trary. I had obtained a nuncio's signature to enter the Papal 
States — had afterward contributed to the consul's revenues at 
the port of embarkation ; but the police were inflexible, and I 
was forced with the crowd to seek consular aid. 

Civita Vecchia, though the port of Rome and the surround- 
ing territory, seems exceedingly dull and uninteresting, and it 
would be still more so were it not for the almost daily arrival 
of some of the numerous steamers that ply upon this part of the 
Mediterranean. We therefore huriied to get away. At last, 
after the numerous friends that had assisted at our entrance into 
the pope's dominions had been duly remembered — after we had 
paid the extra fee for conveyance, and all the men and boys, 
who, by systematic division of labor, had lifted a carpet-bag a few 
feet backward or forward, or touched a hat-box — had, in East- 
ern phrase, " eaten our salt" — and the driver had looked calmly 
around to see if there were more claimants — we moved leis- 
urely off. Altogether, we loaded quite a cavalcade of carriages. 
The road led in the direction of the Aurehan Way, along the 
level seashore for some distance. It was a pleasant day, a gen- 
tle ripple was laving the beach, and the picturesque lateen sails 
of the fishing-boats were prettily coquetting with the breeze. 
On the left hand, in one part of the road, was seen the town of 
Cerveteri, upon the site of Caere or Agylla, one of the most 
famous cities of Etruria, described by Virgil as governed by 
Mezentius on the arrival of ^neas. In the tombs at this place 
-were discovered the finest Etruscan remains which adorn the 



Chap. XXIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE, 149 



museum of the Vatican. One of them contained a famous 
breastplate of gold, the bronze bier, the armor, the funeral car, 
and tripod which, some ten years since, were brought to light 
by the researches of Regulini and General Galassi. These 
tumuli and highly-interesting relics have been set down by 
able antiquaries as belonging to the era of 'the Trojan war. 

On stopping to change horses, our senior postilhon and all the 
ragged juniors, with hat in hand, came supplicating a fee. We 
were as yet uninitiated, and puzzled to know, in small points, 
our just duties to the public in a strange country. Poor fel- 
lows, they really looked as if they needed it, and the majority 
were generous. A wealthy lady in her private carriage behind 
us, however, seemed resolved to resist what she seemed sin- 
cerely to believe was some dishonest charge ; and the postillion, 
with violent gestures, was enforcing his demand. The words 
grew high and loud, when an EngHsh gentleman by my side, 
who was fluent in Italian, and rather given to waggery, man- 
aged, most amusingly, to protract the debate and perplex them 
both, and in the end gallantly sided with the lady. 

As we penetrated into the interior, the country became more 
and more dreary. A moldering ruin, partially inhabited, or a 
solitary lodge here and there, with miles between, were the 
only human dwelhngs. In one place, a large number of 
miserable-looking laborers were collected in a plain, ploughing. 
Four of the large gray Roman oxen were fastened abreast, 
with a rude yoke, to a plough shaped like a triangular, 
sharp-pointed spade. A man on horseback seemed superin- 
tending the whole. It was the famed pestilential Campagna. 
This immense district is farmed by a few rich capitalists at 
Rome. In winter it is covered with myriads of cattle and sheep, 
but as summer comes on, it becomes too sickly even for brute 
beasts, and they are driven to the cooler pastures among the 
Sabine Hills. In harvest, the poor famished peasants who, to 
eke out an existence^ come down from the hill country to the 



150 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIV. 

plain, as reapers, weltering in the broiling snn by day, and 
sleeping on the damp ground, amid the noxious exhalations of 
the malaria by night, fall victims to its deadly fever by hun 
dreds. Many return but to drag out a miserable existence. 
As soon as the harvest is gathered, the Campagna is utterly 
deserted. 

At length, in the bright moonlight, we looked out over a 
little hill ; there, looming up in the distance, gorgeous and beau- 
tiful, vv^as the dome of St. Peter's. I shall never forget the sen- 
sation which burst upon me at the first glimpse of desolate yet 
magnificent Home. We entered by the Porta Cavallegieri. 
Passing in front of the Piazza of St. Peter's, we crossed the 
Tiber by the bridge in front of the Castle of St. Angelo, and 
were soon in the depths of the Eternal City. It was not late, 
but it seemed there reigned a deathly stillness. 



CHAPTER XXTV. 

Eoman Impressions — Pantheon — ^Airy Visions — Capitol — Dying Gladiator — 
The Pope — " Taking Possession." 

Next morning I sallied forth to satisfy the curiosity of years. 
After all, there is no earthly spot that gives you, perhaps, the 
same first impression as Rome. You see nothing of the stir 
of commerce and the bustle of the nineteenth century. It is a 
city of priests, churches, and ruins. Unless you happen to be 
an enthusiast in painting, or a devotee to her faith, your earlier 
rambles in this Mecca of arts and southern Christendom are 
apt to produce a slight feeling of disappointment. The mind 
dwells most upon her former estate. You have come dream- 
ing, perhaps, of the beautiful fictions of the poets, and the lore 
of history from the times of iEneas and Romulus to the last of 



Chap. XXIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 151 



the Cffisars ; and forgetting the ravages of the elements for so 
many centuries, and of captors more fierce than they, you 
are scarcely reconciled to find all so changed. In the inhabited 
poition, objects of time-hallowed memory are singularly masked 
and blended with the more trivial things of life, or the associa- 
tions of an imposing ritual. I strolled into the first square 
along the Corso, and men were cleaning shoes, and selling or- 
anf^es and matches around the Column of Marcus Antoninus ; my 
banker's bureau and a great many other things were in the 
Palace of Justiniau; a little farther on I came to a little open 
space, where women were roasting chestnuts and selUng vegeta- 
bles, and on one side stood a round ancient edifice surmounted 
'by a dome, and ornamented in front with a portico sustained by 
Corinthian pillars, the most beautifully simple and effective in 
its proportions I had ever seen. It was the Pantheon. The 
** temple of all the gods" has, as most are aware, with surpri- 
singly little alteration, been converted to Christianity; and, fitted 
up as a church, it now remains the most perfectly-preserved 
monument of ancient Rome. I entered, gazed awhile at the 
tomb. of Raphael, and retired. The change was but one of a 
class. Statues of angels and apostles were standing upon tri- 
umphal columns and monuments once decorated with emperors 
and warriors ; old temples were transformed into churches, and 
the niches, probably formed for images of the gods and devices 
of heathen worship, were occupied by saints and the Virgin. 
The cross had simply effaced some other emblem. Every 
object of the ancient worship seemed to have been industriously 
modified and appropriated by the new ; and the palpable evi- 
dences of the transition carried the mind back to the days of 
Constantino, and Julian the Apostate, and the long and deadly 
struggle between paganism and Christianity. 

Apart from the bearing of these indications upon the question 
as to whether the purer faith became deteriorated by yielding too 
much to its predecessor, they are interesting as showing the ex- 



152 tOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIV" 

treme tenacity with which human nature clings to every thing 
ancient, and the great difficulty of suddenly reforming or chang- 
ing the habits of a whole people. 

It requires several days to get the enthusiasm and abstraction 
requisite to thoroughly enjoy the ruins of Home. You must have 
time to let the soft disguise of Italian digest and return to you 
in thrilling historic words of schoolboy Latin ; processions, 
masses, and wax candles must become familiar things ; you 
must cease to be distracted by the sight of priestly robes of 
black, red, or gold, or the cowl of a monk, or amused with the 
flaring costume of the Albano peasant, or the appearance of a 
buffalo from the Campagna ; and when you are sated with 
scenes among the living, you may wander to the outskirts, and 
in congenial loneliness, amid crumbling -^arches and broken 
columns, revel for hours in memories of the past. 

After wandering about for a day or tv/o, seeing many things 
cursorily, and few satisfactorily, I determined to commence 
anew by getting some idea of the geography of the city from 
the tower of the Capitol. This famed citadel is now in the out- 
skirts of modern Rome, with the most interesting ruins beyond — 
a kind of central point betw"een the city of the living and the 
dead. What phantoms of glory desolate started in a moment 
into vision ! Other empire cities had passed away, and left 
scarce a wreck behind ; but there, just below, were the remains 
of the Roman Forum ; beyond were the Arch of Titus and the 
Palatine Hill, covered with the moldering relics of the Palace of 
the Caesars ; and farther still were the Arch of Constantino and 
the gigantic Coliseum. On the other side was the compact mass 
of modern Rome, with obelisks, columns, and churches peering 
lip here and there, skirted on its western edge by the " yellow 
Tiber" rolling unchangeably on as when its waters received the 
vanquished Maxentius, or the captive maiden from the camp of 
the Grecian king. Across the river was seen the pile of the Vat- 
ican, St. Peter's, and the Castle of St. Ano^elo. The world has 



Chap. XXIV.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 153 



not another prospect so rich in its associations. My head fairly 
grew dizzy as I tried to count the seven hills. Five of these 
were deserted and covered with ruins, and the Capitoline and 
Quirinal were only in the borders of the present city. Beyond 
the walls on every side was the gently undulating and desolate 
Campagna, the once fruitful territory of' ancient Latium and 
Etruria. Bounding this on the north, in the distance, were seen 
the Sabine Hills, and on the east a range of heights, the advance- 
guard of the Apennines, below whose crests were perched the 
towns of Tivoli, Castiglione, Frascati, and Albano. In this di- 
rection, too, were the plain where Hannibal encamped, and the 
lofty summit of Monte Algido, the " Gehdus Algidus" of Hor- 
ace, and still the ice-house of Rome. 

Entering the museum below, I was soon fully occupied in a 
maze of halls and apartments, stored with treasures of ancient 
art. A very complete collection of the busts of the Roman em- 
perors, the poets, and philosophers, possessed much interest. 
One could fancy the ill-natured wife of Socrates could not have 
had greater triumph than presenting a mirror to her amiable 
and ugly husband. But the marble base, the mosaic doves, the 
antique fawn, the exquisite statue of Antinous, and all the other 
wonders of the collection, were but slight attractions compared 
with the celebrated statue of the Dying Gladiator. I confess no 
marble ever caused me half so much feeling. There was more 
of life and thought in him than from description I had expected. 

The dizziness of death was but commencing. You see it 
all. There is the blood trickling from the wound in his side ; 
his right arm has been stretched out to support him as he had 
fallen, and it is just giving way ; the manly limbs that for life and 
victory have struggled so fiercely are unconsciously relaxing ; the 
sweat has matted his hair ; the head is slightly drooping ; the 
gaze is upon vacancy ; the brows are knit, the lips discomposed; 
and every line of that noble, agonized face tells that a struggle 
within, has succeeded the conflict without, and that the most feai^ 



154 L0ITERING8 IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIV. 

fal deatli-pang has come. Almost irresistibly in thought you 
mutter over — 

" The arena swims around him — ^he is gone 
Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won. 
He heard it, but he heeded not — his eyes 
Were with his heart, and that was far away ; 
He recked not of the hfe he lost nor prize ; 
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay, 
There were his young barbarians all at play — 
There was their Dacian mother — he, their sire, 
Butchered to make a Roman holyday." 

The Palace of the Capitol, it will be remembered, was built 
and arranged by Michael Angelo. Close at hand, among a 
mass of small houses, with a little difficulty I succeeded in find- 
ing a portion of the Tarpeian Rock. But its height is so dimin- 
ished by rubbish that a leap from it would probably no longer 
cure either love or treason. 

One bright morning the cannon of St. Angelo fired, and all 
Rome was in motion. I followed the crowd. Presently we 
were rushing, in one countless array of foot, horse, and car- 
riages, past the Coliseum toward the ancient Church of St. 
John in Lateran. This splendid ancient edifice, on account 
of its alleged consecration by Constantine, and other cir- 
cumstances, claims precedence even to St. Peter's ; and the 
crowning inaugural act after the election of a new pope is a 
gorgeous procession to this church, and other ceremonies con- 
stituting what is termed the "taking possession." The act, 
from some cause, had been deferred a few months, and the 
enthusiastic joy of the Italians at the signs of amendment in 
the papal policy, the well-timed clemency of the new incum- 
bent, and their fears and aversion of Austrian and other in- 
fluences made them determine on giving a popular demon- 
stration. A friend who had been twenty years in Rome had 
never seen any thing so imposing. The windows and balconies 



Chap. XXIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 155 

were filled with thousands. Beautiful women waved their haud- 
kerchiefs. Flowers and olive-leaves were strewed all along the 
route. J hastened in advance to the church. There is a con- 
fused recollection of a hale, good-looking old man carried on a 
triumphal chair, like a bier — of immense yellow silk canopies, 
like umbrellas, spread over him at the steps — -of ^ deafening 
huzzas that followed a blessing — of clouds of incense and peal- 
ing anthems — of a church all decorated with scarlet and gold 
trimmings — of the Swiss guard, with a queer striped uniform 
and halberds — of long ceremonies at the altar, and of the 
pope's return to the grand entrance with increased pomp, 
wearing the triple crown. I hastened by a nearer route to the 
Coliseam, and secured a position where I could see the whole 
cortege as it passed on its return. The pope was drawn by six 
horses, splendidly caparisoned; and an immense state coach, cov- 
ered with scarlet velvet and gold, with a couple of gilt angels 
in front bearing the keys of St. Peter. Then came the Col- 
lege of Cardinals, each in a richly-gilded coach, with three liv- 
eried attendants behind. A long array of other dignitaries, the 
mounted guard of nobles, and some regiments of artillery and 
infantry followed. Altogether it was a most imposing pageant. 
It was easy to see that the descendants of those who relished 
Caesar's triumph four days were Romans still, and loved a show 
as intensely as ever. Their affections had been transferred to 
spiritual rulers. 

To one of another faith, it seemed strange to see the alleged 
successors of the fishermen of Galilee surrounded with kingly 
pomp and the implements of destruction . 



156 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXV. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Romantic Weatlaer — Coliseum by Moonliglit — Saspicious Visitor — Trajan's 
Column — The Forum — ^Arch of Titus — Santa Scala. 

One niglit or morning I was suddenly wakened by a furious 
rain, and as it died away^ I saw by the light in my window, that 
there was a small moon. It was a joyful discovery. I had 
been repining at my not having made the famous trip to the 
Coliseum by moonlight some time previously, and I could not 
remain another month. I sprang eagerly out of bed, and thrust 
my head out of the window. It was a singular, wild-looking 
night, presenting the aspect of black clouds fringed with nar- 
row strips of moonshine, and the glimmer of a Tew stars through 
the crevices contrasting with the gloom like the light in a picture 
of Rembrandt ; the sort of nocturnal weather in fact that makes 
one think of child-stories of conjurors and evil spirits — such as 
one would fancy should have succeeded the storm in which the 
hero of Burns escaped from the witches. My watch was par- 
alytic ; the Roman clocks, with dial plates of twenty-four hours, 
commencing and changing with Ave Maria or twilight, are a 
complete puzzle to a stranger; and in blissful ignorance of the 
hour, I hastily equipped, and succeeded in waking the porter. 
He rubbed his eyes, then stared at me as if to detect insanity, 
muttered some very significant words about robbers, as if to 
give fair warning, and seeing me resolute at length unbarred 
the street-door. Assassinations, though much diminished, are 
not even yet so rare as they might be in Italy. By our joint 
calculations it was somewhere between midnight and daylight, 
and though I knew that since the poet's famous description this 
moon excursion had become quite fashionable, yet the adven- 
ture all alone, at so very late an hour, when I came to reflect 



Chap. XXV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. l5f 

upon it, in the cool street, seemed to have about it something 
of danger as well as romance, and I comforted myself with the 
companionship of a respectable stick, my tried friend in the 
Alps. I turned for a moment for one earnest gaze at the Column 
of Trajan, then by a winding way escaped from the houses of 
the modern city into a kind of common, surrounded with ruins — 
the site of the ancient Roman Forum, and passing beneath the 
Arch of Titus along the edge of the Palatine Hill and the Pal- 
ace of the Ceesars, I presently reached the Arch of Constantihe, 
when just before me, like some immense towering fortress, more 
impressive in the stillness and gloom of night, was the Coli- 
seum. 

By this time the moon shone out, and there remained but a 
few flitting clouds, that seemed determined to rain, and floating 
in mid air, like spirits, filled the earth beneath with changing 
lights and shadows. It seemed more impressive, and less like 
day than the glare of a full moon in a cloudless sky. I appeal 
to all poets, and tender people too, if moonlight is not improved 
by being a little damp 1 The face of nature, like the human 
face, is, doubtless, more interesting after weeping. 

The world is already familiar with the ordinary daylight de- 
scription of this wonderful structure, and most are likely aware 
that it is a slightly oval amphitheatre, more than a hundred and 
fifty feet high, and estimated to have originally covered about 
six acres of ground, and to have been furnished with seats to 
accommodate more than eighty thousand spectators — that it 
was commenced by Vespasian and finished by Titus, in the latter 
part of the first century, by the labor of Jewish captives ; and 
that for four succeeding centuries it was the scene of gladiato- 
rial combats, and other bloody spectacles indicative of the taste 
of a warlike and cruel people. To the modern visitor, one of 
its most touching associations arises from the circumstance that 
it was the spot where Ignatius of Antioch and multitudes of 
the early Christian martyrs were thrown to wild beasts. Ma- 



158 LOITB RINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXV. 

jestic as its ruins now are, it is said but about two thirds of 
the original pile remain. It endured the devastating changes 
of a fortress in the middle ages, and served as a quarry for sev- 
eral palaces, till about a century since, with a view to its pres- 
ervation, it was solemnly consecrated by Benedict XIV. to the 
memory of the Christian martyrs who had perished there. The 
arena is now ornamented with rude representations of the Sa- 
vior's passion, a pulpit in which a monk occasionally preaches, 
and a cross in the centre, for each kiss of which an indulgence 
is promised for two hundred days. 

1 never felt more vividly the fitness of the midnight hour for 
lone contemplation. Above were but the moonlit sky and the 
silent stars ; and around, frowning more grimly in the gloom of 
midnight, like deserted piles in the city of the dead, were some of 
earth's proudest monuments. How eloquent was that stillness ! 
The watch-dog had forgotten to bay " beyond the Tiber." Not 
an echo died upon the breeze that whispered plaintively amid 
the leaves o^the ivy and the ilex, and the crumbling arches on 
the Palatine Hill. The owl had ceased her wail in the buried 
mansions of Augustus, and the damp vaults of the " golden 
house" in w4iich Nero had once reveled. Where cohorts in 
^hining armor had gathered, with their eagles proudly waving, 
and music, and the shouts of assembled nations had rent the 
air at the elevation of the triumphal arches of Titus and Con- 
stantine, was now not a human voice nor a habitable dwell- 
ing. 

If with the waving of a hand the spirits of the mighty dead 
could have been summoned from their graves to gaze upon the 
little that remained of what had been once their pride, what a 
lesson would it have been upon the vanity of human ambition ! 
Yet who can estimate the sum of mortal agony which these few 
relics had cost ! 

The busy fancy conjured up strange phantoms. It needed 
little effort to fill again the empty seats of the deserted Coliseum 



Chap. XXV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 159 

with a multitude, rising like a forest on a mountain-side — to 
picture the tyrant emperor, the Roman guards, the vestal vir- 
gins, and the senators in the sumptuous seats, nearest the arena, 
and the various ranks in their costumes, receding away to the 
slaves far above — the hush of suspense — the advance of a 
bearded, tottering old man, just torn froni the parting embrace 
of a venerable matron, and a trembling maiden, and toward 
whom every eye is directed — the glaring eyes and roar of the 
hungry beast — the moving of the lips, and the upward look of 
that meek face, as if in faith he saw the martyr's crown — the 
terrific bound — the victim quivering beneath the jaws of the 
furious beast on the sand — the spouting gore, staining the white 
locks — the demon gaze of the multitude mingled here and there 
with a compassionate face, in tears, and the cruel, drowning 
shouts of thousands of heathen voices. It was but an idle dream. 
The dimness of night and the silence of desolation were again 
around me. I heard but my breath and the beating of my own 
excited heart. 

Both my imagination and my feet had traveled a good dis- 
tance for so late or early an hour, and I naturally began to 
think of returning. Walking round to the side of the Coliseum, 
toward the Arch of Constantino, and casually looking home- 
ward, I perceived a real human being, that was no optical illu- 
sion, making directly toward me, in the shape of a tall figure that, 
with alittle feeding would have done for the English horse-guards. 
He wore a cloak and slouched hat, fit for a representation of Guy 
Fawkes, or the picture of an assassin, and was dressed inferiorly 
in w^iite (a discovery for painters), which with advancing steps, 
by moonlight, was particularly effective. I then recollected 
the porter's warning, and determined to sound his intentions by 
taking a little circuit. He closely followed. Just as I began 
to think seriously of showing my defenses, and demanding ex- 
planations, unexpectedly I stumbled upon one of the pope's 
Bentries, whom I succeeded in puzzling with bad Italian till 



160 LOITERINC^S IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXV. 

my interesting, and. possibly harmless, follower had passed. 
Presently day began to break, and I returned to my hotel. 

Let us retrace the route by day, and notice some of the ob- 
jects a little more leisurely. The Column of Trajan stands in 
an excavated square, amid the bases of the broken columns of 
the Forum of Trajan; and in the series of delicately-sculptured 
figures, winding spirally from the bottom to the top, and, in gen- 
eral appearance, somewhat resembles the bronze imitation in 
honor of Napoleon in the Place Vendome. Originally it sus- 
tained a colossal statue of Trajan, bearing his ashes in a ball, 
at the height of about one hundred and thirty feet. It was 
built by the celebrated Apollodorus, of white marble, at the 
commencement of the second century. Perhaps, on the whole, 
no monument of the kind in the world is more interestinsf or 
beautiful. In exquisite and wonderfully-preserved bas-relief, 
it exhibits more than two thousand figures of persons, the cos- 
tume of vatious conditions, houses, armor, fortifications, and 
other devices illustrative of ancient manners and customs, and 
embodying an epitome of the life of the hero. First is the 
crossing of the Danube upon a bridge of boats, then follow the 
battles, storming of fortresses, the emperor addressing his troops, 
the reception of supplicating ambassadors, and leading incidents 
of the Dacian wars. 

Then, as you advance toward the Coliseum, partially wedged 
in between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, is the site of the 
Roman Forum, with three solitary upright Corinthian pillars, 
relics of the Temple of Saturn, the adjacent Arch of Septimus 
Severus, and the eight granite columns remaining of the Temple 
of Vespasian. Presently you are abreast of the Palatine, cov- 
ered with irregular mounds, with here and there broken arches 
and masses of brickwork peering through the turf and vines, 
in the excavations beneath which the visitor is still shown damp 
vaults, and dark moldering chambers, the remains of the luxu- 
rious baths and sumptuous halls of the Palace of the Ceesars. 



Chap. XXV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 16l 



Hard by is the finest of the triumphal arches — that erected in 
honor of Titus, and commemorative of the conquest of Jerusa- 
lem. As directly corroborating Holy Writ, it is deeply interest- 
ing. Beneath the arch, on one side, is still seen a procession in 
bas-relief, bearing the seven-branched candlestick, the golden 
table, the silver trumpets, and the spoils of the Temple, cor- 
responding exactly with the description of Josephus, and form- 
ing the only authentic representation of these sacred utensils 
now remaining. 

Nearer the Coliseum, and more imposing in size than the 
others, is the Arch of Constantino, exhibiting evidences of the 
plunder of a monument to Trajan, and the greatly-degenerated 
sculpture of two centuries later. 

Happening to be exploring in this direction one morning just 
after sunrise, I went on past the Coliseum to see the Santa 
Scala or Holy Stairs. They consist of a flight of some twenty- 
eight marble steps, the same, according to the Catholic tradi- 
tion, upon which the Savior descended from the judgment-seat 
of Pilate. So reverently are they regarded, that they are pre- 
served with great care in a fine porch close to the Church of 
St. John in Lateran, and none are allowed to ascend them but 
penitents on their knees. To protect the stone from being 
worn away by the multitudes who seek to undergo this penance 
it has been necessary, it is said, to cover the steps some three 
times with consecrated wood. 

Three or four devotees made the ascent during the few min- 
utes of my early visit. I shall never forget the appearance of 
one of their number, a pale, sickly-looking monk. More earn- 
estly than the rest he seemed to linger with his lips in the dust, 
and kiss fervently, one by one, every step till he slowly crawled 
to the top. His face had a haggard, wild expression of enthu- 
siasm, such as one might almost fancy in a pilgrim of the Ganges ; 
and his frame appeared wasted to a skeleton, as if by night- 
watching and self-imposed suffering. I looked on, with the nat- 



162 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVI. 

ural incredulousness of one of another faith; but I felt no dispo- 
sition to ridicule. There seemed more cause to pity than to 
sneer. The Searcher of hearts only knows how many of the 
misguided are sincere. I frankly confess there is to me some- 
thing solemn and touching in every seeming attempt of erring 
humanity to propitiate its God that compels me to treat it with 
decent respect. The pains which the distracted spirit may even 
blindly inflict upon its fleshly tenement, in its yearnings for a 
happier world, are at least signs of the instinct of its own im- 
mortality. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

" Caught Napping" — Subterranean Celebration— St. Peter's— Sistine Chapel 
— The Vatican — Last Judgnient — Raphael's Transfiguration — Baths of 
Dioclesian. 

Whatever is very unexpected naturally impresses us strong- 
ly. The most careless individual who had gone regularly to bed 
at home, would doubtless be surprised into marked attention to 
wake up and find himself in his seat in church, as the French 
have it, assisting at a sermon. People rarely go to church in 
sleep, though they sometimes go to sleep in church. I had one 
evening retired to rest, wearied with the labor of sight-seeing, 
and for ausfht I know mig-ht have been in the midst of a solo 
of those nasal sounds denoting deep slumber, when I was all at 
once awaked by the mournful chanting of a multitude of 
voices. As soon as I knew where I was, I sprang to the win- 
dow, and found the street in front filled at the lone midnight 
hour with a religious procession. Part of the company in a 
grave, bass tone repeated a sentence or two, and the rest, in a 
higher key, solemnly chimed a response. I fancied they were 
doing it as a sort of penance. Every night for some time sue- 



Chap. XXVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 163 

ceeding, at precisely the same hour, I was regularly startled 
from sleep by this singular service. 

I set out one day rather leisurely for a visit to St. Peter's. 
Taking a turn through one of the more retired streets, I was 
engaged in reflecting upon the silver shoe-buckles of the last 
priest, meditating upon the well-feigned deformity of the latest 
applicant for alms, or some other harmless occupation, when 
my cogitations were arrested by a crowd entering a small an- 
cient church. I followed. They pushed on through a narrow 
passage, and presently descended into a set of spacious vaults 
beneath, hghted up with wax candles, and filled to suffocation 
with throngs of the eager living in the place of the dead. The 
walls were covered with bones and skeletons arranged as if for 
more fearful effect, and in one compartment were wax figures 
of grim-looking Roman soldiers with spears and ancient ar- 
mor, and a group of characters, among which was a beauti- 
ful girl, apparently about to be executed as a martyr. I learn- 
ed, upon inquiry, that it was a holyday, kept in memory of 
the Christian martyrs, many of whom were reputed to be bur- 
ied there. An ecclesiastic stood at the door rattling a box very 
significantly for contributions. The novelty of these ceremonies 
to one unaccustomed to them was, doubtless, enhanced by sud- 
den surprise. 

- Continuing my walk, I presently stood at the entrance of the 
magnificent Piazza of St. Peter's. This, it will be remember- 
ed, is a kind of outer court, nearly inclosed by two lofty cir- 
cular colonnades with pillars, four deep, expanding from the 
front of the church like long-advanced wings, inclosing ground 
enough for a tolerable city park, and capable, according to 
Roman periodicals, of containing a half a million of persons, or 
more than the entire population of New York. Within this 
area the multitude receive the pope's blessing from the balcony 
of St. Peter's during the ceremonies of the holy week. As has 
often been observed, the effect of these imposing outworks, the 



164 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVI. 

complicated high front, with its three stories and heavy balco- 
nies, equally fit for a palace or a theatre, and the colossal stat- 
ues and other appendages, is to partially conceal its crowning 
beauty, the unrivaled dome. You feel that the later barbarous 
additions to the front, with an exception or two, seem like an 
insult to the shade of Michael Angelo, and you regret that it 
was impossible that he could have lived to be the architect of 
the whole. Externally, especially, there is a want of unity and 
simplicity. Yet it is scarcely reasonable to expect, that an edi- 
fice that, with its appendages, was some three centuries and a 
half in building, under forty different popes, and many succeed- 
ing architects, should be without faults of this kind. It is only 
after you enter and scan the massive columns, the wide-spread 
arches and giant figures, and lose the tread and voices of the 
diminished human beings in the gloomy distance, and gaze 
upon the gorgeous concave of its dome till the head grows 
dizzy, that you begin fairly to realize the grandeur of the gi'eat- 
est of earthly temples. Suddenly there breaks upon you a rev- 
elation of the sublime genius of Michaef Angelo. You feel it 
almost a sin that you were at first so inclined to censure. 

Though a few of the extravagances of Bernini may offend 
your taste, yet when you come to dwell more leisurely upon 
the later monuments of Canova and Thorwaldsen, and examine 
some of the choicest productions of Raphael and Guide, imi- 
tated in mosaic so delicately as to lead the uninitiated to believe 
these copies to be oil paintings, you begin to esteem the place 
as a very interesting depository of art. 

In the centre, where the lamps are ever burning, is the tomb 
of the erring disciple thus honored. On one side as you enter, 
is also the famous black bronze statue of St. Peter, the extend- 
ed great toe of which is devoutly kissed every few moments by 
some of the throng of worshipers. 

It is scarcely necessary to repeat the account of the well- 
known ceremonies in St. Peter's, or enter into details of the 



Chap. XXVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 160 

grand illumination during the holy week, when, by the light of 
thousands of lamps suspended over the whole of the outside, 
every line and projection of the immense edifice, as if by magic, 
flame in the darkness of night unconsumed — the pope blessing 
the people — washing the feet of twelve aged priests, and after- 
ward waiting on them at table — the grand masses for the dead, 
and the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul — the Christmas serv- 
ice, and blessing a hat and sword as a present to some Catholic 
prince, or any of the imposing celebrations so often described. 
Some of thera draw a vast concourse of strangers ; yet it is said 
to be almost impossible to have so large an edifice entirely 
filled. It has been recently calculated to be able to accom- 
modate at once fifty thousand persons, and the area is estimat- 
ed to be considerably more than twice the size of St. Paul's 
at London, or Notre Dame at Paris. My impression of its 
vastness was increased by mounting to the roof and climbing 
i3p to the ball. The view, at an elevation of more than four 
hundred feet above one of the most interesting fields in the 
world, is really magnificent. 

Hard by St. Peter's is the Palace of the Vatican. I shall 
never forget the days spent in dreaming over the w^onders in its 
museum. The gems of the vast collection of statues are placed 
in a group of apartments around an octagonal court in which are 
the Boxers, by Canova; the Belvidere Antinous, so exquisite 
in its anatomy ; the Laocoon, supposed to be that which Pliny 
described as a work superior to " all others both in painting 
and statuary;" the famous Apollo Belvidere, and other choice 
things. It was worthy to observe, that, as if by instinct, those 
apartments of which the two latter trophies of art were the sole 
ornaments, were always most crowded with spectators. The 
group of the Laocoon is singularly interesting to any whose 
profession or other causes have led thera to study particularly 
the human frame and the process of dying. Each of the three 
figures expresses just the amount of life which would naturally 



16^ LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVI. 

remain. The younger of the two boys, or that to the left of 
the spectator, is strongly compressed, the side of his chest is 
grasped severely by the fangs of one of the serpents, he lies 
almost passive, and his are the later pangs of death, in which 
the external world is forgotten. The elder boy, on the other 
side, more free and less injured, looks pitifully up at the father, 
as for relief, and tries fearfully to push off the serpent's coil 
from his beautiful limbs, while the father, more entangled and 
bitten, yet contends with all the energy of manhood, in his 
muscular arms, and expressive, agonized face, to save himself 
and his offspring. 

As evidence that the ancient sculptors studied nature very 
closely, even in the smallest trifles, I obseiTed that on one part 
where the body of the lower serpent pressed the leg of the 
father, that the veins were turgid below, and almost obliterated 
for a distance above. 

And who, upon paper, can do justice to the Apollo Belvi- 
dere '? You return and return, to get a last look, till you almost 
chide yourself. Hardly could you before believe that so much 
of exulting, flashing life and beauty, and might, could be ex- 
pressed in marble. 

It would take long to enumerate the other great attrac- 
tions of the Vatican — to speak of its Etruscan and Egyptian 
museums and its unrivaled library. Forming part of this pal- 
ace is the celebrated Sistine Chapel, where, during the holy 
week, the miserej'e is sung, and one end of which is covered 
with the immense fresco, by Michael Angelo, of the Last Judg- 
ment. I never gazed on so terrific a picture. The frowning 
Judge, the martyrs rising with the emblems of their suffering, 
the promiscuous trembling of the affrighted condemned into 
the flaming gulf below, are expressed with a masterly power 
almost inconceivable. Yet, as works of art, the embodiments 
^ of harmony and beauty in the school of Athens, and the rest of 
the stanze of Raphael, and above all his matchless picture of 



Chap. XXVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 167 

the Transfiguration, in the adjoining apartments, find many 
more admirers. It will be recollected it was this masterpiece 
of the greatest of painters that was hung over his corpse as it 
laid in state at his early and greatly-lamented death. The pic- 
ture represents the Savior in unearthly beauty and majesty, 
caught up in the air with the floating figures of Moses and 
Elijah, above Mount Tabor, while on the ground beneath them 
are sti-etched the three apostles, unable to bear the light, and 
in the distance, far below, at the gloomy foot of the mountain, 
are a group personifying human suffering. A maniac boy, pos- 
sessed of an evil spirit, with a livid face, distorted eyes, and con- 
vulsed limbs, is struggling between two females kneeling and. 
beseeching the disciples, two of whom point, as if to the only 
source of relief, away to the glorified figure in the sky, personi- 
fying the mercy of Heaven. There seemed strange pathos and 
poetry in the conception, and the earnest gaze upon the repre- 
sentation of that scene, recalling reminiscences of deliverances 
in hours of trial and deadly sickness brought tears upon one 
face present. 

Indeed, one can spend much time in Rome looking at nothing 
but pictures. Without mentioning the churches, you can grat- 
ify your taste leisurely' with Raphael's Entombment of Christ, 
the sweet Madonna of Carlo Dolci, and other gems in the gal- 
lery of the Borghese Palace; the beautiful landscapesof Claude 
in that of Prince Doria, and Guido's very celebrated picture of 
the lovely, innocent-looking, and sorrowful Beatrice Cenci, in 
the Barberini gallery, taken, it is said,^from memory, as she 
was passing to her execution. 

There are also interminable ruins. Of those undescribed, the 
Baths of Caracalla are among the most stupendous : yet from 
certain capricious early associations, I lingered longer over the 
far less imposing remains of the Baths of Dioclesian. There 
was more of romance in the history (y£ the prosperous warrior 
and statesman who could brhig himself voluntarily to resign a 



168 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. EOhap. XXVII. 

crown. If any friend addicted to sentiment and poetry — one 
who may have ever so carelessly amused himself with rhyme, 
as a child with musical instruments — just to hear how it 
would jingle — -or innocently conned over the Greek alphabet 
for a signature for the village paper, should think of visiting 
the Eternal City, we caution him against exposure to old ruins. 
They are as infectious as the miasma. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Adieu to a Breakfast — Italian Village — Papal States— Monk in a Minority 
— Monte Cassino — Capua — Vesuvius — Skirmish with Lazzaroni. 

It is a very old sentiment that there is no bliss without slight 
twinges of pain. I arose one delicious sunny morning full of 
visions of scenes of southern Italy, and in fancy pictured even 
the Bay of Naples. Rome was particularly quiet, and seemed 
to have overslept itself. The payment for the formidable list of 
names on my passport, and the highest fare I had met in Europe 
for a place in a shabby diligence — the mistakes of a razor — the 
hasty adieu to the ruins of a breakfast — and the moving ad- 
ventures of my baggage in pursuit of its owner were soon 
things of the past. I was in too happy a mood to be disturbed 
by trifles. The air was balmy as the breath of spring, and the 
Italian sky, so liquid blue and transparent, seemed like the can- 
opy of some happier world. While our friends at home were 
skivering over their wintry fires, evergreens and roses in full 
bloom peeped here and there among the old walls beyond the 
Coliseum. 

There are two principal routes to Naples: one by Terracina, 
traversing for some distance the Pontine Marshes, and partially 
following the course of the ancient Appian Way, and the fa 
mous j.ouraeY of Horace ; and another shorter road more inland, 



Chap. XXVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 169 

among the mountains. We chose the latter. Traversing the 
Campagna toward Frascati, we soon reached the pleasant hills. 
A party of peasants with supplies for the market, in primitive 
style, unyoked their oxen to feed by the roadside, and then 
gathered around their own homely fare. Here and there we 
met sorry-looking vehicles, drawn by a single horse, laden with 
casks of wine. By a simple contrivance they were scantily 
sheltered by a few sticks radiating from a common centre in one 
corner, or the leaning branch of a tree, covered with the loose 
hide of some animal — the original, probably, of the top of a 
modern gentleman's coach. Half reclining beneath this paltry 
covering was stretched the driver, basking in rags, apparently 
enjoying what the Italians term the dolce far niente, a phrase 
difficult to translate, but probably familiar to many as express- 
ing the ecstasy of prolonged dreamy indolence. It was a warm, 
relaxing day, and everybody and every living thing w^e saw 
moved so languidly that the sensation seemed really contagious. 
The general apparent relish for its endurance reminded one of 
the story of the Indian who, on quaffing very gradually a favorite 
draught, wished for the addition of a couple of miles to his 
throat, that he might taste it a,ll the way along. In this health- 
ier hilly country I had hardly expected to find so much slug- 
gishness. Every thing seemed going to decay. A Roman 
patriot attempting the best apalogy for its ecclesiastical goveiTi- 
ment might say something, perhaps, of the enervating influence 
of climate ; but there seemed deeper ills resting upon this fruit- 
ful, yet blighted land. The soil appeared naturally rich, the 
wheat-fields, even with poor cultivation, in spots were beauti- 
fully rank and green ; carelessly-trellised vines spread luxuri- 
antly here and there ; and ever and anon, there burst upon the 
view in the distance, a lovely landscape, that only betrayed its 
wretchedness as we draw near. Having taken my meal in ad- 
vance, as the diligence leisurely stopped an hour for breakfast, 
I perambulated the adjoining filthy village. G-roups of ragged 

H 



170 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVII. 

creatures were lazily roasting chestnuts, and lounging in the few 
open spots ; the contents of its narrow lanes would have well 
manured some of the neighboring fields, and the odor was so 
offensive that I was glad to make a speedy retreat. The 
houses were diminutive, irregular, and I had never seen a col- 
lection of human habitations so wretched. As we left, a de- 
tachment of beggars followed the diligence for some distance. 
Farther on, we were sui'piised to find the open country so 
thinly inhabited. Many spots could not compare in population 
with an American back-settlement of a dozen years. In some 
portions of the Neapolitan territories, and especially in the 
north of Italy and Tuscany, we afterward found a far more 
prosperous state of things. The question naturally occurs, Why 
should central Italy, once so populous, be now so desolate] 
There has been scarcely any emigration. The wars of Napo- 
leon principally affected Lombardy and the north, and were 
almost unfelt in the Papul States. Space enough for reparation 
has elapsed since the decay at the era of the thirteenth century, 
mentioned by Sismondi. Since the time of Julius II. none of 
the popes have turned warriors, to enlarge the patrimony of 
St. Peter, and for more than three hundred years it has seen 
scarcely any thing of bloodshed and devastation. 

Toward sunset we wound through a valley of singular nat- 
ural beauty, and late in the evening stopped to refresh at a 
wretched little cabaret. There was a mingled murmur of 
French, English, German, and Italian at the fare ; but hun- 
ger knows no law, and the unpalatable biscuits and coffee of 
mine host, in spite of remonstrances, rapidly disappeared. Our 
conveyance was divided into compartments, and regulated 
much as a French diligence, only that the prices of all the 
places were equal ; and being among the unfortunate applicants 
who were last, I was compelled to ride sideways, and crowd 
into a little close place in the rear. My next neighbor was a 
good-natured monk, not particularly addicted to cleanliness, who ' 



Chap. XXVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 171 

in our afflictions, had freely proffered the consolations of a snuff- 
box, and from a well-worn ancient volume, printed in red and 
black, while daylight lasted, had kept repeating aloud his ac- 
customed Latin forms, for the edification of another Protestant 
and myself He seemed to think ventilation inconsistent with 
religious seclusion, and to desire to make our traveling apart- 
ment as much of a monastery as possible ; and there was an 
amusing strife between the poor monk and the majority, as to 
whether the window should be open or shut. Near daylight 
we arrived at the custom-house, on the frontier, and after the 
rummaging of passports and baggage for some time, and the 
amicable adjustment of all disputes, by means of a few pauls, 
we were permitted to enter the Neapolitan dominions. We 
breakfasted at a little town not far from Arpino, the birthplace 
of Ciceix), atid enjoyed a fine view of the famous Benedictine 
convent of Monte Cassino. It is perched far above the town, 
upon a lofty height. As the earliest establishment of the kind 
in the Western world, and containing a library in which were 
preserved some of the most precious works of classical antiquity, 
and which is still one of the richest in the rude literature of the 
dark ages, it possesses much interest. 

The day was most lovely. One could not help occasionally 
uncovering his feverish forehead to let the soothing breeze play 
with its locks. We revived from a state of torpor, like hiber- 
nating animals in spring. Sometimes as our young ofiicials, in 
tawdry uniform, leisurely halted to change horses, a party of 
passengers would break out and playfully start a pedestrian 
opposition in advance, and when they were overtaken, it was 
interesting to see the smile, and the winning way with which 
the steps were let down, in hopes of future remembrance. 
Cultivation improved, and the world without began to look 
brighter. As the pleasantly-terraced hills of the morning reced- 
ed, we came to a rich, level country. At last we entered 
through a circle of formidable fortifications into Capua. The 



172 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVII. 



modern representative of what was once reputed the thh'd city 
of the world is rather insignificant, but the climate is still deli- 
cious, and its surrounding volcanic soil is as productive as ever. 

There was a dearth of Neapolitan change among us, and a 
fine-looking swarthy urchin, with a roguish black eye, and pos- 
sibly a tinge of Carthaginian in his veins, followed us from place 
to place through the town, and teased us amazingly. One of 
the company declared he had noticed his perseverance in the 
same vocation a year or two previous, and he certainly was a 
httle Hannibal in his way. 

Beyond Capua, nearly all the way to Naples, stretched the 
most fruitful plain I had ever seen. It was the famous Cam- 
pania Felix of the Romans, whose fertility was so justly cele- 
brated by Virgil. As in olden time, it is still planted with rows 
of elms of moderate size, upon which vines every where cling, 
and pass overhead occasionally in festoons,, so trimmed as not 
to obstruct the light to the wheat or other grain below; and 
it vividly reminds one of the description of the Georgics. 

Presently it grew dark, and we looked forward in the dim 
distance, and saw^ a dark mass peering toward the clouds, 
crowned with a fiery brightness mingled with smoke, and there 
burst forth the exclamation, " Mount Vesuvius !" I could not 
keep my eyes from that mountain light-house, and little heeded 
the bustle of one of the noisiest cities of Europe as we entered 
the streets of Naples. Sleep in a quiet quarter came with a 
double relish, and the next morning the first thought was of the 
volcano. In my eagerness I could scarcely then appreciate the 
beauty around me. By what I confess seems now a morbid 
and unreasonable caprice, the battle-field of Waterloo and 
Mount Vesuvius interested me more in anticipation than any 
other scenes in Europe. 

Having secured the services of a guide, with a torch and 
other equipments, I made my arrangements to remain after 
dark at the top. It was a beautiful afternoon as we slowly 



Chap. XXVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 173 

ascended from Resina, winding amid the most luxuriant vine- 
yards, and mounting, one after the other, mounds and hard- 
ened rivers of lava, the deposits of the various eruptions of a 
thousand years. We passed the guard stationed near the spot 
where the guide said a party of English, with their wives, had 
been murdered by robbers, a few years* since, and near the 
summit saw the sun in strange beauty set upon the bosom of 
the Mediterranean. Panting up the highest and steepest ascent, 
all bare and black, without any thing to lay hold upon, and with 
our feet sinking every step in the ashes and loose cinders, we at 
last caught the smell of sulphur and the sight of fire. Melted lava 
was slowly oozing at two or three spots outside, below the brim 
of the crater, and we went and stood beside one of these burn- 
ing streams, while one of the men present thrust a stick into the 
fiery viscid mass, and brought out a portion of lava, which, like 
a piece of dough, he molded with the stick for me round a cop- 
per coin. The volcano had been unusually active for some days. 
One of my fellow-travelers, in trying to protect a lady, had just 
burned and spoiled a good coat, and a piece of burning rock 
had hit and severely injured his hand. Every few moments an 
explosion rent the air. The sulphurous stench nearly stifled 
us, and the ground was reeking hot beneath our feet. I greatly 
desired to see the crater, and tried urgently to get the guide to 
pilot me. After coming all the way from E-ome to look into 
the throat of the fiery monster, it was hard to be disappointed. 
But this ordinary feat had become highly dangerous. After de- 
murring awhile, he grasped my hand, and seizing a more calm 
moment, rushed with me for a few dizzy seconds to a spot over- 
looking the burning abyss. The fearful convulsive explosions 
shaking the ground beneath us — the hissing of melted rocks 
hurled high in air — and the boiling fiery gulf below contrasting 
with the darkness of night, and the murky cloud above, will 
never be forgotten. Presently there was a heaving in the direc- 
tion in which we stood, and the guide took to his heels, drag- 



174 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVIIL 

ging me after him, and we managed to dodge the shower of hot 
grape that fell around. Returning down the mountain, by 
torchlight, to Resin a, I overtook my suffering friend, who had 
met with no further accident, except the falling of his horse. 

We fancied our adventures for the night were finished, and 
quietly crowded into one of the conveyances that you see about 
Naples, with furious drivers, and horses without bits, merely 
curbed by a strap above the nostrils. But we were mistaken. 
Our Jehu lightly grazed one of the ragged lazzaroni, and as he 
halted to see if any harm was done, the offended party drew a 
knife, which, missing the driver, passed just in front of my knee, 
while the latter, pale as a sheet, put whip to his horse and dis- 
tanced two or three pursuers that by this time joined in the 
chase. I went to bed heartily tired, and thankful for having 
escaped unhurt through the incidents of the day. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

Bay of Naples — Street Customs — Lazzaroni — "Gallant Fiiend" — Virgil's 
Tomb — Grotto of Posilippo — Sibyl's Cave — Elysimn — Pompeii. 

I HAVE a vivid recollection of sitting one evening in company 
with a friend upon the flat roof of the hotel near the shore, and 
rapturously gazing upon the beauties of sunset in the Bay of 
Naples till the gentle chime of Ave Maria came over the wa- 
ters. It was one of those earthly visions that return not in their 
original brightness. The placid silvery wave, dimpled here and 
there by the tiny bark with its white sail, the dim azure isles 
like gems in the sea, the shore like a terrestrial paradise, and the 
magic of the declining sun throwing lights and shadows over 
distant mountains, presented a picture that none but the Om- 
nipotent could create. It was sabbath. There seemed religion 



Chap. XXVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 175 



in the hour, and this may have served to engrave its memory 
more deeply upon the heart. 

Imagine the Bay of New York somev^rhat enlarged, and the 
Narrows removed, so that it rather expands toward the sea; 
in place of the farther Jersey shore let a chain of romantic 
rocky islands extend out some twenty mile§ along the widening 
entrance; on the opposite side, remove Governor's Island out 
to sea as a sort of natural breakwater, to keep the waters tran- 
quil within, and indicate the position of the elevated and pic- 
turesque island of Capri; fancy the North and East rivers 
closed, and the whole bay surrounded with an amphitheatre of 
hills, now softly receding and again boldly advancing ; picture 
the city and its dependencies with their white walls reflected in 
the clear waters, stretched as an unbroken crescent some ten 
miles along their inland margin ; beyond Brooklyn Heights let a 
peak rise loftier than the rest, clad in fire to represent Vesu- 
vius ; and, to make the contrast of beauty and stillness below 
more remarkable, let the waters be the bluest, and calmest, and 
their breath the sweetest, and the sky above the loveliest that 
your senses have ever known, and you have an attempted image 
of the Bay of Naples. 

. I saw nowhere more external liveliness than in this southern 
city. The Mediterranean has latterly become a thronged sea, 
and Naples attracts a goodly share of its commerce. Besides, 
the mildness of the chmate allows nearly every kind of occupa- 
tion and trade to be carried on in the open air, and in some of 
the back streets you may find eating, drinking, tailoring, black- 
smithing, and countless other things, going on in the street. 
With the furious driving of the vehicles, the hubbub is prodig- 
ious. The Neapolitans, too, seem a most excitable, noisy peo- 
ple, and to be blessed with remarkable lungs, which have prob- 
ably grown powerful by use. Loud and boisterous discussions 
arise about the most trivial matters, and a stranger would almost 
imagine that the parties were about to eat each other, when 



176 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVIIL 

they mean no such thing. They are celebrated throughout Italy 
for the extent and violence of their gestures, and for excelling 
in pantomime. Many may be familiar with a rather hard hit 
of a late traveler, who relates the case of a person in the street 
touching his lips and waving the extended five fingers of his 
hand at the angle forty-five degrees, as a sign to a passing 
friend ; and on inquiring the meaning he learned that it was to 
telegraph the second party as a guest to dinner at half-past 
five. 

Along the shore toward Portici, somewhat reforaied in their 
habits, you see swarms, the descendants of the true lazzaroni, 
still inclined to sleep in the open air, rejoice in scanty garments, 
and bask listlessly in the sun. They seem to live principally 
on shell-fish and macaroni, the latter of which they manage 
to swallow in strings very dextrously ; and the clamors and 
pranks around a temporary out-door cooking establishment in 
the edge of a fine evening are really diverting. The govern- 
ment has of late years made efforts to diminish their numbers 
and improve their condition with considerable success. 

One pleasant afternoon I clambered up the romantic, vine- 
clad ridge separating the Bay of Naples from the Gulf of Baiae, 
on a pilgrimage to the Tomb of Virgil. My companion was full 
of Oxford lore and classical enthusiasm. He was the same gal- 
lant friend who had so naiTOwly escaped the fate of the younger 
Pliny, and who had borne upon his coat and hand the honora- 
ble scars received in rescuing the fair upon Mount Vesuvius. 
We were annoyed with throngs of unnecessary guides offering 
to conduct us in a perfectly plain road, so ugly as to mar the 
poetry of the expedition. At last a pretty little black-eyed girl, 
some six years of age, lisped Italian so sweetly and innocently, 
and took my hand so confidingly, that we put ourselves under 
her protection to keep off" the rest. The tomb is in a kind of 
gi'otto, among the vines up the side of the hill, in a spot com- 
manding a view of the Bay of Naples and the prospect of the 



Chap. XXVIII.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 177 

country the poet loved so well. A small monument inscribed 
with his name has been erected by a modern French traveler. 

Passing below the Tomb of Virgil, and penetrating the mount- 
ain from one side to the other, like a railroad tunnel, is the 
Grotto of Posilippo, a third of a mile in length, wide enough for 
the passage of two carriages, and constructed, in ancient times, 
as a thoroughfare between Naples and Cumge. Having taken 
my passage one morning, in one of the conveyances that hourly 
run from Naples toward Baiae, I was carried, with a throng of 
foot-passengers and carriages, beneath the cool grotto to the 
bright plain on the other side. We coursed along the beautiful 
shore beyond till we halted at the town of Pozzuoli, the ancient 
Puteoli, at which St. Paul landed. Selecting a guide among 
the ferocious crowd, I was soon dreaming over the rings for the 
victims and receptacles for the blood, amid the crumbling pil- 
lars and vaults of the Temple of Serapis. But the unsenti- 
mental guide reminded me that we had a full day's work, and 
we walked round the shore toward Baiae, and gazed awhile 
upon the ruins of the Villa of Cicero. Presently we passed by 
the Lake of Lucrin, famous for its oysters in the times of the 
luxurious Romans, and approached Lake Avernus. But earth- 
quakes and cultivation have sadly deranged the geography of 
old mythology. The entrance to Tartarus is now a very earth- 
ly-looking piece of water, birds fly over it with impunity, and 
the dark Cimmerian forests have been absorbed. 

We came to the mouth of the cave of the Cumsean sibyl, 
and, at a signal from the guide, instead of the wild lady that so 
startled ^neas, a commonplace, ragged Neapolitan received us, 
and, by the aid of a smoking pine fagot, and mounting on the 
back of the barefooted conductor to be carried through long 
winding passages partly filled with water, I was enabled, at 
last, to rest on the sibyl's rocky bed, and get as far as practica- 
ble toward the ancient realms of darkness. We emerged not 
much wiser, and, returning to the seaside, took a steaming at 

H* 



178 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXVIII. 

the natural volcanic vapor-batbs of Nero, on the side of the hill, 
a mile distant, and then cooled ourselves in the rotunda of the 
Temple of Mercury and amid the ruins of the temples of Venus 
and Diana, along the shore. Every eminence and promontory 
along this beautifully-indented coast is covered with fragments 
of villas and temples. We lunched very complacently among 
some ancient remains; the guide grew gracious, and talked in- 
cessantly of Lady Hamilton, in whose household he had been 
in childhood. Presently we started over the hill for the Ely- 
sium. The view from the top was like that of a fairy land. We 
were in the midst of classic ground. Hard by these villas had 
lived Marius, Caesar, and Lucullus, and at the spot where stood 
the residence of Hortensius, Nero had murdered his mother. 
Just to the southward was the promontory and port of Miseni- 
um, the ancient station of the Roman fleet. We wandered 
awhile amid the wonderfully-preserved galleries and pillars of 
the Piscina, a subterranean water-reservoir connected with the 
Roman arsenal, and the more horrid deep dungeons of the pris- 
on of a hundred chambers, where, to extort plunder, the Roman 
tyrants confined their victims. The Stygian Lake and the Ely- 
sium I was so curious to see, consisted of a sluggish pond, be- 
yond which were certainly some monotonous-looking fields that 
had probably been badly ploughed that year, and the only rep- 
resentative of Charon, that we saw in our travels, was the ragged 
and loquacious steersman, who, for a very worldly considera- 
tion, took us homeward across the beautiful Bay of Baice to 
Pozzuoli. I reached Naples after dark, feeling much less ro- 
mantic than in the morning. 

If one's anticipations fail with some things in this region, 
I fancy they are frequently exceeded in others. I was hard- 
ly prepared to expect so much of beauty and interest as I 
found in the disinterred treasures in the museum at Naples, 
and the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. How ex- 
quisitely executed were those cameos and necklaces ! How 



Chap. XXVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 179 



natural and graceful w^re the statues of the Balbi and Aristi- 
des ! Then you were introduced to the comforts and luxuries of 
ancient common life. Commodious cooking utensils and lamps 
elegantly molded, like fruit hanging upon trees, were there. 
In excellent preservation, you saw the very delicacies of the 
table in the bread stamped with the maker's name, and the re- 
mains of eggs, fish, honeycomb, and fruits. As you gazed upon 
the pots of rouge, silver mirrors, ivory pins and combs, you fan- 
cied you could almost furnish a fashionable Roman lady's dress- 
ing-room; But the most vivid sensations were experienced in 
treading the streets of these cities of the dead. Herculaneum, on 
the west of Vesuvius, toward Naples, was buried beneath a 
river of liquid lava hardened. The portions now exposed con- 
sist of a theatre and a few vaulted passages, inspected with can- 
dles, and lying at some depth beneath the ground, upon which 
stand the houses of Resina. One of the wonders about Naples I 
visited last was Pompeii. It lies on the south side of Vesuvius, 
only buried beneath cinders and ashes. It has been excavated 
to the extent of several acres, and its lonely streets have been laid 
open to the light of day. One can not forget the sensations of 
roaming in such a place. You can hardly believe that seven- 
teen centuries have passed since life was there. The streets 
were all paved, their names were still legible ; the quarters 
for the soldiers, the forum, the two theatres, and the temples of 
Isis and Fortune, were all remarkably preserved. Here, by the 
arrangement of furniture or signs, you learned there lived an 
apothecary; his neighbor was a wheelwright; then, perhaps, 
came the shop of a wine-merchant, a pastry-cook, or a sculptor. 
The houses, with a few exceptions, were of one story, contain- 
ing an open court, with a well in its centre, and the apartments 
placed around this were paved with mosaic, and were usually 
only lighted from the doors. The public baths were of marble, 
luxuriously arranged, and, with a little repairing, and a supply 
of the needful element, they could be fitted for present use. 



180 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIX. 

But the rnost touching sight was the sumptuous mansion of 
Arrius Diomedes, with its garden, its architectural ornaments, 
and its extensive cellars filled with wine-vessels, while, on 
first opening them, in one corner was a skeleton, grasping 
in its bony fingers coins and gold ornaments. In this black 
spot, in fancy, the whole drama of that fearful night came 
over you. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

"Neapolitan Ethics — Swiss Soldiers — Gastric Insurrection^ — Pisa — Leaning 
Tower — Duonio — Campo Santo — A Recitation.' 

Doubtless the most valuable kind of knowleds^e is that 
gained from actual experiment. But poor selfish human nature, 
like the cunning animal that prefeiTed deputing the limb of a 
neighbor to test the sensation from fire, best enjoys tricks played 
upon othei'S. Naples is rather notorious for the enterprise of a 
certain class skillful in detecting money and foreign accent ; 
and it might have been from a lurking temptation to relish a 
joke at the expense of some good-natured member, that, when 
our traveling company accidentally met, we were often much 
amused by tales of the sleight-of-hand way in which pocket- 
handkerchiefs and their ownel's parted in a crowd; the ingenious 
modes in wbich hotel bills were magnified, or perchance the 
guileless face with which in the shops and streets several times 
the current value of things had been extracted as soothingly as 
in surgical operations with ether. Of course as transient visitors 
we saw not the fairest specimens ; but there seemed a prevail- 
ing tendency to the uncharitable belief that the popular con- 
science was considerably relieved from its arduous duties. It 
often pays one in happiness, however, to be unsuspicious. 



Chap. XXIX.] LOITERINGS IN' EUROPE. 181 

There is no prescription in traveling so valuable as unconquer- 
able good-humor. Some of the younger ones among us, to 
borrow a beautiful metaphor, had probably left home " in ver- 
dure clad." Such migbt comfort themselves that in these tri- 
fling matters they were legitimately purchasing wisdom, and com- 
pleting their education by " learning the ways of the world." 

As in furious haste, for fear I should lose my passage, I rushed 
toward a small boat at the wharf, the last lesson in physics I re- 
ceived on shore was a hint from the officer stationed to prevent 
the exportation of pictures and antiquities, that a piece of coin 
would instantly make my baggage transparent. Soon after I 
was standing on the deck of the steamer, as it rapidly made 
for the open sea, and taking a last look at the Castle of St. 
Elmo, Mount Vesuvius, the promontories of Misenium and 
Salerno, the islands of Capri and Ischia, and the detail of the 
gorgeous panorama of the Bay of Naples. Besides the usual 
complement of passengers crowding the forward deck, was a 
detachment of Swiss soldiers in the service of the King^ of 
Naples, who were returning on leave of absence for a few 
weeks to their native mountains. These hardy mercenaries, re- 
ceiving much more pay and indulgence than the native soldiers, 
like the Swiss guard in France before the Revolution, are 
maintained, to the number of five or six thousand, as household 
troops, to keep in check the loving subjects of his Neapolitan 
majesty. For more than three hundred years the Swiss have 
been in the habit of hiring out as soldiers, and within the pres- 
ent century they have had regiments in the service of four or 
five nations; but at present the pope and the King of Naples 
only are allowed by treaty to enlist soldiers in a few of the can- 
tons. Though thus selling their blood on a foreign soil, they 
still retain their national character for bravery. 

Our company seemed joyous as unpiisoned birds at the 
thoughts of revisiting their mountain homes. They supplied 
themselves from large flasks of the wine of the country, and at 



182 LOTTERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIX. 

length some began to be amiable toward the bulwarks, or what- 
ever was next them, and others gathered in threes and fours, 
and sustained their parts in some sweet German airs. There- 
was an appeal to the heart in some of the more innocent dem- 
onstrations of gladness from these returning exiles that none 
present seemed willing to disturjb. At last sleep came and 
quieted every thing but the engine and the sea. During the 
night we passed the Grulf of Graeta and the coast to the north- 
ward, and the next day we touched at Civita Vecchia. The 
steamer was a very fine one, belonging to an early established 
Neapolitan company, and was one of a number that had been 
built and fitted out for their service in England, and furnished 
with English engineers. Near the island of Elba, the second 
night we encountered a gale, and for a little I was more sub- 
missive to seasickness than ever I had been on the Atlantic. 

Since the days of Ulysses and St. Paul the MediteiTanean has 
been noted as a troublesome place in a storm. Next morning a 
more sad-looking group could scarcely be pictured than our 
worthy company. If any affiighted, clinging creatures strove 
for a gasp of fresh air, the merciless waves respected not even 
the ladies' dresses. We were prostrated by a general gastric 
insurrection. Some sought solitude in the covered carnages on 
the deck, others instituted a sympathizing society by huddling 
together on the leeward side of the cabin, and holding on to each 
others' chairs. Just at that sorrowful moment, I fancy, with a 
little assistance from art, our faces might have furnished a print- 
shop with variously expressive caricatures of misery. But if 
any itinerant Hogarth or Cruikshank was present he was prob- 
ably disabled. The steward, amiable man, was continually fly- 
ing from one patient to another, trying to alleviate the general 
distress, by dispensing gruel, cordial, and soda-water. As, we 
neared the port of Leghorn there began to be more serious ap- 
prehensions. The sea was rolling fearfully high, threatening to 
dash the ships anchored outside, upon a lee shore, and the port 



Chap. XXIX.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE, 183 

- V ■- 

was difficult to enter. But the steamer, at some peril, made her 
way where no sailing vessel could have ventured, and we at 
last landed, sincerely thankful for our deliverance. 

Not caring to remain long in a place before visited, I went in 
the afternoon by railroad through a level, well-cultivated country 
eastward to Pisa. Making my way through a crowd of most 
industrious applicants for alms, I was at last quietly domiciled at 
the hotel. The days that followed were unusually tranquil and 
happy. When all around is eloquent of the past, temporary 
isolation is often a luxury. Sheltered by the romantic hills to- 
ward Lucca from chilling winds, and sweetly nestled upon the 
banks of the Arno, Pisa enjoys an exceedingly mild climate, 
that invites many northern consumptives, and makes its winter 
seem like our own spring. I could not resist the balmy influ- 
ence without that tempted me to dreamy walks about the out- 
skirts and along the banks of the river. 

The surrounding evidences of superior intelligence, comfort, 
and industry, which one sees every where in Tuscany, take 
away much of that alloy of sadness which one feels in regard- 
ing the monuments of the past in other parts of Italy. In Pisa, 
too, the four great attractions to the curious are all grouped 
closely together in a retired spot, congenial to undisturbed re- 
flection. This with every visitor must be a favorite walk. The 
famous leaning tower is but the campanile, or bell-tower, to its 
near neighbor the cathedral. Perhaps, from the imposing ob- 
jects around, it did not at first produce that impression, as to 
size and effect, that I anticipated. But my respect was won- 
derfully increased as I walked around to its threatening side, 
and beheld an immense round tower, nearly a hundred and 
eighty feet high, with the top leaning over more than a dozen 
feet, a,nd the whole seeming about to tumble upon me ; and the 
feeling was increased, as, after climbing up its interminable 
steps, and peeping out successively from its eight stories of 
columns, I at last reached the belfry, and tripped lightly and 



184 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIX. 

cast a dizzy glance over the battlements on the frail side. The 
view of the hills to the northeast, covered with white villas, the 
Arno winding through a fruitful plain to its mouth, and the 
blue Mediterranean but five or six miles to the westward, and 
the glimpse of some of its islands in the distance in fine weather 
are magnificent. The architect, however, has skillfully con- 
trived that the centre of gravity should just fall within the line 
of the base below, and that the much greater weight of materi- 
als in the opposite direction should balance the tendency toward 
the leaning side. It is so firm, that some time since, it is said 
to have withstood a slight shock of an earthquake that damaged 
some of the houses in Pisa. The Duomo is of marble, of dif- 
ferent colors, and is a wonderful edifice for the eleventh cen- 
tury. Having grown powerful by its commerce, and obtained 
a great victory over the Saracens in Sicily, the republic of Pisa, 
in the spirit of the times, consecrated the spoils to the erection 
of this cathedral. 

Hard by is a burial-place filled with monuments, fresco 
paintings, and interesting antiquities, occupying the celebrated 
Campo Santo, or holy ground. It was founded by an arch- 
bishop, driven from Palestine by Saladin in the twelfth century, 
during the height of the enthusiasm for relics, who made what 
modern irreverent people would call a large speculation, by 
arriving safely with fifty-three vessels, said to be laden with 
the earth from Mount Calvary, and depositing his treasure 
here. There is generally considerable difference in the capa- 
bilities of the various conductors in magnifying the remarkable 
things to which they happen to be attached. The keeper of 
the Baptistry was particularly fluent. Fancy the dome of St. 
Peter's at Rome cut off at the base, lifted and set upon the 
ground, pierced for an entrance, and containing inside a fine 
altar, a baptismal font, and many beautiful things, and let every 
whisper reverberate about you as if the place were enchanted, 
and you have an image of the fourth wonder of Pisa. 



Chap. XXIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 185 

During tlie repeated attempts of the German emperors to con- 
quer Italy at the era of the Itahan republics, it will be recollect- 
ed that all the great families and cities were divided between 
two bitterly hostile factions — the Ghibelines, or high Tories 
of those times, siding with the emperor ; and the Guelphs, or 
Liberals, who fought for Italian independence, and assisted the 
popes, who, in the early part of the struggle, from policy were 
with the patriotic party. Pisa was commonly as fierce for the 
Ghibelines, as her rival, Florence, was for the Guelphs. There 
is a famous tragedy connected with one of the popular commo- 
tions recorded in her history which has been immortalized in the 
" Inferno," and which is probably suggested to every visitor. 

A powerful Ghibeline chief. Count Ugolino, having been ex- 
pelled from the dictatorship, was placed for safe keeping, with 
his children, under the care of his former associate, an arch- 
bishop. But the prelate forgot the mercy of religion, and at 
length secretly threw the key of the prison into the Arno, and 
cruelly starved to death that father and his innocent children. 
The poet, it is well known, in his account of the characters 
he met in his journey to the bottomless pit, did not spare even 
the priests, and he puts a fearful tale into the mouth of the tor- 
tured ghost of Ugolino. 

I shall never forget a scene with an Italian friend with whom 
I happened to be on terms of pleasant intimacy. The Italians, 
it is well known, have more expression efface and gesticulation 
in speaking than even the French. Our friend had a fine bass 
voice, and had been educated for the bar. I casually asked him 
very quietly one evening, who was the first of the Italian poets'? 
" Why, Dante, of course," he replied. Rising suddenly from his 
seat, and stretching himself to his full height, he muttered impa- 
tiently, as if the honor of his country was impeached, "Do you 
think there is any passage in Homer to compare with this'?" and 
as he stood he began repeating and acting the speech and suffer- 
ings of Ugolino. After finishing the horrible preface, and the 



186 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXIX. 



dream of the ravenous wolves, he warmed with the subject as he 
repeated the passage, which, scarcely in its native fullness or 
sonorous versification, has been thus rendered in English : 

" Uttering not a word, 

I looked upon the visage of my sons. 

I wept not : So all stone I felt within. 

They wept : and one, my little Anselm, cried, 

^ Thou lookest so ! Father, what ails thee?' Yet 

I shed no tear, nor answered all that day, 

Nor the next night, until another sun 

Came out upon the world. When a faint beam 

Had to our doleful prison made its way, 

And in four countenances I descried 

The image of my own, on either hand 

Through agony I bit ; and they who thought 

I did it through desire of feeding, rose 

O' the sudden, and cried, ' Father, we should grieve 

Far less, if thou wouldst eat of us.' 
****** 

'' There he died ; and e'en 
Plainly as thou seest me, saw I the three 
Fall one by one 'twixt the fifth day and sixth : 
Whence I betook me, now grown blind, to grope 
Over them all, and for three days aloud 
Called on them who were dead. Thus fasting got 
The mastery of grief." 

Thus having spoke, 
Once more upon the wretched skull his teeth 
He fastened, like a mastiff's, 'gainst the bone 
Firm and unyielding. 

It was dim twilight, we were alone, and the effect was really- 
startling. Near the close the face of my tall friend grew flushed 
and wild, his frame seemed convulsed with emotion ; and the 
grinding of his teeth, as he repeated the last lines, and described 
the terrible retribution upon the head of the tormented priest, 
seemed almost fiendish. 



Chap. XXX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 187 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Italian Railroads — Vetturini — " Effort in Public" — Tuscan People — Florence 
— Power's Greek Slave — Episcopalian Service. 

One day we whirled away from Pisa and its leaning tower, 
with a force that would have astonished Galileo and the sages 
of ancient science. Surely there is no telling where the ag- 
gressions of the nineteenth century will end. The example of 
constructing railroads, so creditably commenced by Tuscany, is 
now being imitated by almost every state in Italy. Within a 
year you may probably reach Florence from the sea, and in a 
few years you may drive to St. Peter's with harnessed steam. 
No pope or earthly potentate can long resist the subtile ele- 
ment. 

Yet exulting thoughts like these, and certain commonplace 
elated ideas, about the march of steam and the march of intel- 
lect, were checked by the consciousness that much of the 
scenery of the lovely valley of the Arao was so quickly to 
vanish. 

This bird-like passage ended, we suddenly produced quite a 
sensation among the hangers-on at the little town of Ponte- 
dera. In the exciting scramble, he'was a happy man who had 
what, I believe, some intellectual people call " adhesiveness" 
enough to stick to his luckless baggage. 

There is a class of men all over Italy termed vetturini, vari- 
able in character, who make a business of caiTying passengers 
to and fro in tolerably comfortable conveyances, as may be 
agreed by private written contract, often with ingenious verbal 
additions at the last stage. Thirty or forty miles a-day are 
usually accomplished ; the horses are not changed, and all 
rest at night. The driver commonly agrees, for a sum stipu- 



188 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXX. 

lated, to furnish meals and lodging for the party at the inns and 
stopping-places along the road. Respecting these, luxurious 
livers should not form too brilliant expectations. Yet such pri- 
vate vehicles can often be hired to go to the small towns, and 
places inaccessible by the public diligences ; and even on the 
main routes the privileges of more leisurely observing scenery 
and domestic life, and of resting regularly at night, are w^eighty 
considerations with many not pressed for time. A party of 
friends, some of whom may know enough of the language to 
seek redress in case of any gi'eat excess of imposition, beyond 
the amount which the traveler for the sake of his own enjoy- 
ment soon learns to endure as tranquilly as possible, may in 
this way sometimes get on very pleasantly. But it is much 
more precarious for one alone. 

As soon as the train had stopped at Pontedera, I had, as I 
thought, engaged my passage in the regular diligence for 
Florence, from one who represented himself as an agent. But 
when the diligence came to start, my name was not down, the 
places were all taken, and my friend, who was the ally of an en- 
terprising vetturino had deceived me. Still under the pleasant 
illusion that an extra was waiting, I was meekly led to one 
of the above-mentioned conveyances. When I discovered my 
error, it was too late to remonstrate, and I submitted with a 
sort of Turkish stoicism. Our smooth-tongued driver had prom- 
ised to get to Florence early in the evening, and it really mat- 
tered little how we were carried there. But after trying to in- 
crease the original terms, he collected a crowd around us in the 
street by beating up for more passengers, and got into a furious 
altercation on the highest key with a party whom he deemed 
not liberal enough. The most extravagant gesticulations and 
expressions were freely exchanged ; and but for the affliction to 
one's ears, the scene was altogether quite amusing. We had 
waited along time in the middle of the street, without any signs 
of moving, and the storm raged as violently as ever. Gentle re- 



Chap. XXX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 189 

monstrances were tried in vain. At last, I bethought myself of 
attempting a little mock tragedy — imitated, as well as I could, a 
towering passion — fiercely produced paper and pencil — demand- 
ed the full name of the driver — and, with a face that I could 
scarcely keep in frowning shape for a struggling inside laugh, 
shouted at the top of my voice the respected name of the police. 
It was rather a bold experiment, but it succeeded admirably. In 
five minutes there was a perfect calm, and we were on the road 
to Florence. My companions happened to be all Italians ; and 
perhaps from the above incident, the gratitude of some, their 
curiosity, or their politeness, to the only one present who had 
the natural right to put on " foreign airs," I was treated the 
rest of the way, in the human sense, as a sort of pet lion. 

The Tuscans seem by far the best governed, most intelligent, 
and happy people iri Italy. There is an appearance of clean- 
liness, comfort, and prosperity generally visible, which contrasts 
strongly with the condition of some parts of the Roman and 
Neapolitan states. Tuscany, it will be remembered, includes 
territories occupied, during the middle ages, by the republics of 
Florence, Pisa, Lucca, and Sienna, some of which were then 
taking the lead in civilization : and it seems as if, even to this 
day, their influence may be traced upon the race. Agriculture 
is made very productive ; and that part of the valley of the 
Arno through which we passed seemed really like a fruitful 
garden, with scarcely a spot untilled. What is termed the 
metayer^ or share system of farming, as in portions of the Papal 
States, has prevailed from time immemorial. The proprietor of 
the soil furnishes all the capital and half the seed, and the ten- 
ant the labor and utensils, and the produce is divided equally 
between them. The olive, the mulberry, and the vine grow 
almost eveiy where, and are indications of the leading staple 
articles. 

In the edge of the evening we supped at the town of Empoli. 
Here, in the middle of the thirteenth century, was held the 



190 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap, XXX. 

council, celebrated in history and poetry, in which the Ghibel- 
ines of Pisa and Sienna, after the defeat of the Guelphs at the 
battle of Arbia, proposed to utterly destroy the stronghold of 
the latter by razing Florence to the ground ; and she was only 
saved by the powerful eloquence and patriotism of Farinata, 
one of her banished citizens, and the general who had planned 
the victory. 

At a late hour we arrived at the barriers, and plodded 
slowly through the silent streets of Florence. 

Having been accidentally deprived of regular rest for a night 
br two previous, it was really a luxury to be introduced to the 
clean, comfortable quarters one finds at Florence ; and the wel- 
come apparition of white sheets produced a sensation like that 
of the nodding hero, who muttered 

" Bless'd be the man that first invented sleep." 

Next morning I had a pleasant ramble. In the thickest part 
of the city you are hardly conscious why it is called " The 
Beautiful." The streets are narrow; the Arno, as regularly as a 
canal, runs straight through the town ; and the grand old palaces, 
at a near view, frown gloomily upon you, with massive walls of 
great rough stone in the Tuscan style, large iron rings for the 
standards of their former ovniers, and close-barred windows 
like prisons, as if built for defense against the street assaults 
of rival factions in olden time. 

But when you escape to the garden of the Grand Duke, or 
some open elevated space in the outskirts, a lovelier vision 
breaks upon you. The sky of Italy is above, and the compact 
city, with its churches, houses, fortresses, and palaces, lies bask- 
ing beneath, in a sweet valley cleft by a silver stream; tower, 
roof, and bulwark, in the enchantment of sunshine, mingle their 
lights and shadows, while around and beyond the walls glow 
pleasant green hills. 

Happening to step into a neighboring cafe to read the jour- 



Chap. XXX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 191 

nals, I found myself beside a gentlemanly retiring countryman. 
An accidental conversation afterward led to the discovery that 
I had made the acquaintance of the celebrated American sculp- 
tor, whose chisel has produced the " Greek Slave." Upon vis- 
iting his studio, the marble copy seemed more beautiful than 
from any of the current glowing descriptions I had ever dreamed. 
She stands as a lovely, bashful creature of seventeen, chained to 
a stake, and exhibited in a slave-market for sale. Her form is 
symmetry itself. Her exquisite face is averted, as if blushing 
at the unkind gaze of the beholder; and there is depicted in 
her innocent, intelligent features an unutterable sadness that is 
deeply touching. 

There are several American artists who professionally, or 
as students, have been residents at Florence for some years. 
Among others, I had the good fortune to meet a fellow-towns- 
man, an enthusiastic youthful sculptor, the brother of a prom- 
ising young painter who had preceded him, and who died much 
lamented a few years since. 

At the invitation, of my friend I went one sabbath to the En- 
glish Episcopalian Chapel. It is a fine, commodious edifice, 
built for the purpose, by permission of the liberal Grand Duke. 
In several of the Italian cities the authorities have found the 
visits of northern strangers so desirable in a pecuniary point of 
view, that they have encouraged them latterly by granting sim- 
ilar privileges. Florence, especially, on account of its many 
attractions, has become the permanent residence, or annual 
resort, of some thousands of English and many Americans ; 
the cause of civil and religious liberty is steadily advancing, 
and there are many reasons for believing, that upon applica- 
tion, any Protestant Church, sufficiently: represented there, may, 
very shortly, be thus allowed the free public exercise of its 
iaith. The church was quite thronged. Differences of evan- 
gelical belief seem scarcely visible so far from home ; and, 
doubtless, some of other Christian flocks gladly mingled there. 



192 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXI. 

The sermon was eloquent and faithful. It seemed a strange 
coincidence to hear such primitive religious truths, several cen- 
turies after, in the very place w^here the martyr Savonarola had 
sealed them vi^ith his blood, and, as if appealing from cruel 
earth to Heaven, in reply to the anathema of one of his tor- 
mentors, had exclaimed, " Thou canst not separate me from the 
Church triumphant!" 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Attack of Enthusiasm — Paintings — Pitti Palace — Memorials of Galileo — 

Adieu to Florence. 

One goes to Rome, as the v^orld know^s, to see the pope, the 
Coliseum, St.. Peter's, and a very full assortment of other curi- 
osities ; hut the sights of Florence are nearly confined to pic- 
tures and statues ; and of these it has treasures enough almost 
to turn a weak head. It is sometimes really amusing, after they 
are passed, to think how much our fancies and impulses are 
the creatures of accidental associations. This is especially the 
case in traveling. Like the chameleon, the hue of one's thoughts 
changes with each succeeding object. You get heroic upon 
the ocean wave or the mountain top, pastoral amid the bright 
plains and running streams, and naiTative at the sight of old 
palaces and battle-fields ; and after sufficient exposure in picture 
galleries and the like, mildly or gravely according to the consti- 
tution, you are almost sure to catch the real mania after ideal 
beauty. The susceptible may expect it at the proper time and 
place, as certainly as they would the ague or the Campagna 
fever. It may commence at the North in the Louvre, or in the 
Vatican or the Capitol at Rome, but at Florence they will find 
themselves, as a patient once said, " rapidly getting no better." 



Chap. XXXL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 193 



I confess, with due humility, I was rather astonished at my 
own fit of enthusiasm. It was quite unreasonable. I felt a con- 
scious innocenpe of any sublime attainments in the fine arts. 
To borrow the words of an honest Quaker, they were " not in 
my line." Yet even a child may have an instinctive sense of 
the beautiful or striking, and can often, it' scarcely knows why, 
select the most excellent statue or painting in a group. Some 
of them, indeed, are so wonderfully natural, that it would betake 
itself to them as spontaneously as the birds that, before they 
knew better, flew to pick the painted grapes of the wily Greek, 
or the mother who strove to kiss- a sweet child on the walls of 
the Pitti Palace. I fancy that books, accomplished compan- 
ions, and observation but give us the reasons of such preferences. 

Perhaps some for whom it may be in store will pardon a 
little history, or defense, if you please, of the kind of pleasant 
infatuation to which we have above alluded. Like the visitor 
himself, it is a thing of gradual growth. In a young country 
like our own, it is impossible that there should be large col- 
lections of the works of the old masters, many of which can 
now be scarcely purchased for money, and they possess at first 
the charm of novelty. You are naturally curious to see things 
of which you have heard so much, and enjoy the whole intellec- 
tual bill of fare of the place. Certain forms and faces, as in any 
strange living crowd, immediately please you more than others. 
These become at length confirmed favorites. The interest 
increases as one migrates from one gallery to another. You 
may have- begun with very slender pretensions, but frequent 
visits and a little study increase the pleasure and improve the 
taste. Step by step you bring yourself to linger rapturously 
among lifeless images for hours. You have your likes and 
dislikes, and, feeling a sort of enthusiastic affection for the works 
of those whom you have taken into particular friendship, you 
soon learn without any assistance from the catalogue to distin- 
guish them at first sight. Not only are the peculiarities of the 

I 



194 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXI. 

Flemish, Spanish, or Italian schools apparent, but you are 
delighted to find that you can detect the productions of any 
great artist by their family resemblance. 

Entering, perhaps, a strange gallery, your eye catches a 
small picture exhibiting a grotesque group in a style admirably 
natural and finished ; it awakens a reminiscence, and you in- 
stinctively mutter, "A Teniers !" That rich-looking portrait 
of an old man farther on, with the colors exquisitely blended, 
the face all w^rinkled and life-like, and the small allowance of 
light beaming upon it, as it were, from a corner above, is surely 
by Rembrandt. Others of lesser note are more quickly disposed 
of, and, even at a distance, the attention is arrested by a staring 
Bacchanalian scene. There is no mistaking Rubens. You 
were a little disappointed with him at first ; perhaps he some- 
times apparently laid on his colors in such a dashing, careless 
style that the effect is almost tawdry ; you wish his beauties 
were not quite so fully developed and coarse ; but still there are 
wonderful grouping and action. You may have not yet seen 
the Descent from the Cross. Every body says he was a great 
painter, and you begin to think it may be true. The Spanish- 
looking figure there in light and shadow, strongly contrasted 
with raven locks, projecting brows, and marked features full 
of mind, bears the stamp of Murillo. 

South of the Alps, of course, one finds Italian paintings pre- 
dominate. Now, you rejoice in the discovery of a beautiful Ma- 
donna, with the peculiar sentimental air and glossy miniature- 
finish of Carlo Dolce ; a good piece, with a touch of sky-blue 
above, by Andrea del Sarto ; or suspicious-looking fishermen by 
a stream, in a wild rocky glen, as if from recollections of bandit 
captivity, by Salvator Rosa. Then the attention is riveted upon 
one of Guide's graceful heads. That painted flesh, all blushing 
and warm with life, can be no other than the matchless coloring 
of Titian. The scene is changed, and you are looking upward 
in the Sistine Chapel. There are twelve years' worth of anatomy 



Chap. XXXI.3 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 195 

in those muscular figures — and the artist loved to show it — 
and yet who but Michael Angelo could clothe them with such 
grandeur and power? In another place you stand meditating, 
perchance, upon a Holy Family that at a glance is recognized 
to be by the prince of painters. Lights and shadows blend as 
softly as in twiHght. The happy group seemed dwelling, as it 
were, in a heavenly atmosphere. Mother and children have 
angel faces, full of innocence and tenderness. Exquisite har- 
mony reigns throughout, and there is the embodiment of calm 
beauty, «uch as none but the pencil of Raphael ever depicted. 

The passion for such sights rapidly increases with the indul- 
gence. One could hardly have previously believed that he 
could be brought to spend day after day merely in studying 
paintings. You come to understand the secret charm that led, 
perhaps, some cherished companion of your boyhood to reject 
a more lucrative profession, and grow solitary and haggard in 
the confinement of a studio till the pencil di'opped from the thin 
hand of the consumptive. In this practical age otie feels that 
he ought not to be intemperate even wdth such intellectual lux- 
uries. Yet in traveling it is natural to wish to sip at every 
harmless flower. Studying in detail the effects of form, combi- 
nation, and color, amid statues and paintings, the eye becomes 
better educated. The mind is stored with new images that 
may serve as rich drapery to thoughts upon other subjects. 
Historical recollections are sometimes brightened. The atten- 
tive student gains, as it were, a new sense, and becomes en- 
dowed with a quicker perception of beauty even in the natural 
world. As you gaze upon the briglitest landscape of Claude, 
or the loveliest creation of Raphael, you may be admonished, 
too, by the thought that these which you admire so much, are 
but faintest images of some features in the works of Him who 
has decorated the sky, shaped the winding stream, clothed the 
trees in verdure, and molded the forms that walk upon the 
. beautiful earth. 



^ 



196 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXI. 

But we will return from this little excursion to the regular 
thread of description. The works of art in Florence, as may 
be familiar to many, are principally in three collections : those 
of the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Vecchio and Pitti pal- 
aces, the latter of which alone has been affirmed to be the finest, 
as a whole, in the world. In the academy there are a cabinet 
of very old paintings illustrative of the progress of the art from 
its infancy, and a great many casts, remains of statues, and oth- 
er objects more interesting to the artists who attend its lectures. 
The Imperial Grallery contains the famous Bacchus and Faun, 
by Michael Angelo, some of the masterpieces of Raphael and 
Titian, the Venus di Medici, the Wrestlers, the wonderfully ex- 
pressive marble representing Niobe and her children, and a be- 
wildering assemblage of rare things besides. 

On the other side of the Arno, but communicating through a 
secret gallery over a bridge lined with shops, is the Pitti Palace, 
so identified with the history of Florence, and now the residence 
of the Grrand Duke. But for fear of fatiguing the reader with 
cold written descriptions, I leave him to imagine the attractions 
of its collection of pictures, now the richest in Florence. Here, 
too, are the finest and most extensive set of wax anatomical 
preparations in the world. But what interested me most, on 
account of their rarity, was a suite of delicately-colored wax 
representations of the minute structure and vessels of plants 
magnified many hundred times, and illustrating admirably veg- 
etable physiology. In one part is a sort of literary temple, 
erected at great expense by the present Grand Duke to the 
memory of Galileo, and dedicated a few years since by the 
Italian Association for the Advancement of Science. Though 
closed for improvements, the obliging keeper allowed me to 
peep into its mysteries, look through his telescope, and gaze 
upon the statue which tardy justice has erected to the memory 
of the great philosopher. 

No city in Italy seemed to me so desirable, on the whole, as 



/ 



Chap. XXXI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 197^ 

a place of residence as Florence. There was a general ap- 
pearance of superior order, cleanliness, and comfort. Applica- 
tions for alms in the streets are exceedingly rare. Unlike that 
of Rome, the climate will allow strangers to remain in safety 
the year round. The galleries and gardens of the Grand 
Duke, and many other places of recreation, are all free ; and, 
besides those mentioned, there are the cathedral with its splen- 
did campanile and baptistery, the Church of Santa Croce, with 
its monumental souvenirs of Dante, Michael Angelo, and other 
great men of Florence, the gorgeous Chapel of the Medici, the 
depository of the statues of Day and Night, by the famous sculp- 
tor just mentioned, and many other interesting spots in which 
to while away the vacant hours. Living is cheaper than in any 
other large city in Europe. The language is the most musical 
and pure in Italy. Pretty little flower-girls, neatly clad, and 
bright as Flora herself, come tripping gracefully up to you and 
present you with a smile and a flower, and then fly coyly away, 
leaving it to your generosity to remember them at a future day, 
or at your departure. Pleasant walks and drives lead along 
the banks of the Arno and to the heights of Fiesole. From no 
city in my route did I part with quite so much of sentimental 
regret as, in the twilight of a balmy evening, from beautiful 
Florence. 



198 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIl. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Crossing the Apennines — Sights not Seen — Bologna — San Petronio — St. 
Dominic — Monuments — University — Lady Professors — Leaning Towers. 

Many a romance in anticipation has been spoiled by the 
weather. Possibly from a streak of original wildness in my 
nature, I have always dearly loved mountains. In my gayer 
moods there has been pleasurable excitement in the climbing, 
and attraction in their ever-varying scenes ; and when thoughtful 
or sad, it has seemed wonderfully congenial to indulge in reveries 
at will, in the mute companionship of solitary rocks and dark over- 
hanging woods, or, free as air, to roam amid bald peaks, where 
earth in silent gmndeur has seemed to commune with the clouds. 
As the prospect brightened once or twice at the commencement 
of our journey, it was very pleasant to dream of moonlight in the 
Apennines. How charming it would be in the splendors of an 
Italian night to revel amid those gentler^' children of the Alps !" 
Our hopes were vain. The sky soon became thickly overcast, 
and for hours together our only amusements were listening to 
the pelting rain and sleeping. To these was afterward added 
conversation. But one may often qualify his expectation of 
enjoying this rational pastime in traveling by the nautical phrase, 
" wind and weather permitting." The effect of a noisy or chilly 
storm is decidedly unsocial. There were but three fellow-pas- 
sengers in the interior of the diligence, including a quiet Italian 
priest, a modest young girl, apparently a relative or friend, un- 
der his charge, and a lively Frenchman. Our grave ecclesias- 
tical friend dealt sparingly in monosyllables, and wrapped a 
huge traveling cloak more closely around him at the close of 
each attack. But no frowns in the dark from her Mentor, could 
silence the gallant friend by my side, from having a little amiable 



/ 



Chap. XXXII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 199 

chit-chat with his timid neighbor. From sheer necessity, at in- 
tervals in the storm, the Frenchman and I were at last forced to 
monopolize the conversation. He was just returning from a 
residence of several years in Algiers, and was full of interesting 
stories of African life. The rain, the sight of an occasional dark 
object in the mist — possibly either a rock or' the side of a house— 
a jolt now and then reminding us of our mutual relation, the 
crack of the whip and the driver's voice, the dragging sensation 
of a lumbering vehicle that seemed ever going up hill, and 
dreams of extraordinary fertility, were the only other things to 
divert the attention for many weary hours. Even the robbers 
who used formerly to infest this route were probably either low- 
spirited, asleep, or retired from business. In this state of torpor 
we passed unconsciously the site of the villa built by Francisco 
de Medici, at the cost of immense treasure, for the vicious and 
beautiful Bianca Capello, and the palace where the lovely El- 
eanor of Toledo was murdered by her princely husband. 

Early in the morning we were equally unfortunate with a 
spring, whose mud, upon being lighted up, is said to burn for the 
amusement of visitors ; and a piece of rocky ground not far dis- 
tant, that, of its own accord, as the peasants say, burns blue by 
day and yellow by night. The flames are said to resemble 
those from alcohol, and to rise a foot or more from the ground ; 
and chemists have found them to depend upon the exhalation 
of a gaseous compound of carbon and hydrogen. 

When broad daylight came I was quite disappointed with the 
Apennines. The idea of being thus perched upon the back- 
bone of Italy, midway between two seas, was decidedly inter- 
esting, and one naturally looked for something romantic in the 
way of scenery. Whatever we might have passed in the night, 
we were now forced to rest contented with the sight of the re- 
spectable bald hills, without woods or precipices, which here 
tamely represent the mountain chain that sometimes fringes so 
boldly the Gulf of Genoa. At last we came to a little inn on 



200 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIL 

the frontiers of the pope's dominions, which thus, as it were, 
partially envelope Tuscany. A peaceable breakfast, the signs 
of improvement in the weather, and the merciful conduct of the 
custom-house officers at length raised our spirits several de- 
grees. Once or twice the horses were assisted in their arduous 
duties up the steeper ascents by oxen, and we enjoyed the 
privilege of walking. I fancied that the villages looked cleaner, 
and the farmhouses seemed more numerous and comfortable, 
than in that part of the Papal States between Rome and Naples ; 
and as we traversed the more level region toward Bologna, the 
soil visibly improved in richness and the cultivation was really 
quite creditable. About noon, at a dashing pace we entered 
the city renowned for sausages, leaning towers, and jurispru- 
dence. 

Coming directly from cheerful, busy Florence, the number 
of churches and functionaries in black visible, and the quiet^ 
ancient air of things in Bologna, made it almost seem like a 
second Rome. It was probably some saint's day, for I found 
every little chapel and place of worship thronged. Falling in 
with the manners of the place, I spent most of my time more 
curiously than devoutly, I fear, in going to church. Indeed, it 
is the only way in which many most interesting monuments and 
choice works of art in the city can be seen. 

As the seat of the famous eclectic school of the Caracci, its 
churches and public gallery are particularly rich in their pic- 
tures, and those of their later disciples Guide and Domenichino. 
A few of the edifices still used for religious worship are among 
the oldest of the kind in Italy, and exhibit traces of heathen 
temples, ancient Greek paintings, and Lombard architecture. 
The Church of San Petronio, commenced in the prosperous 
days when Bologna was a republic, if completed according to 
the original plan, would be larger one way than St. Peter^s at 
Rome. Its interior is exceedingly grand and efl^ective, and it 
contains a masterpiece in bas-relief by Properzia de Rossi, a 



Chap. XXXII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 201 

female artist celebrated for her misfortunes and her wonderful 
attainments in sculpture, painting, and music, and who died of 
a broken heart, just as Pope Clement VII., having noticed the 
fruits of her genius, at the coronation of Charles V., in this 
church, too late invited her to Rome. Just in front of this ed- 
ifice once stood the famous bronze statue of the warrior Pope 
Julius II., executed by Michael Angelo at their reconciliation, 
and afterward broken up and cast into a cannon, after a pop- 
ular revolution. It is related in the life of the sculptor that 
when he asked the fiery pontiff, who had added so much to the 
patrimony of St. Peter, whether he should represent him with 
a book in his hand, the latter replied, "No: a sword would be 
more adapted to my character ; I am no book man." 

The Church of San Domenico contains among its relics the 
head of St. Dominic, the founder of the Inquisition, said to be 
incased in more than a hundredweight of silver; his splendid 
monument, and the tombs of Guido and Elizabeth Sirani, a 
favorite female pupil ; as also that of Hensius, king of Sardinia, 
commander of the Imperialist and Ghibeline forces at the great 
battle of Fossalta. 

The story of the latter is rather curious. His father, Frederic 
II., one of the most able and ambitious of the German emperors, 
who so long threatened the liberties of Italy, having effected the 
subjugation of the Guelphs, or popular party, in Florence, turn- 
ed his attention to Bologna, their next stronghold, and placed 
his son, the King of Sardinia, at the head of the allied forces of 
Modena and the other Ghibeline cities. The Modenese cavalry 
even succeeded in making a sudden dash one day into Bologna 
as far as a public fountain, and carrying off a bucket celebrated 
in story and song, and long preserved as a proud trophy. But 
the insulted citizens soon after rallied all the Guelph forces, 
defeated the enemy in a bloody conflict, took King Hensius 
captive, and, defying the power of the emperor, and refusing 
the treasures offered in ransom, kept him in a splendid manner 

I* 



202 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIT. 

as a state prisoner in Bologna till his death, more than twenty 
years after. 

The University of Bologna, long its chief glory, and the most 
ancient of Italy, it is said to have been the first where academic 
degrees were conferred. It was for a lengthened period prin- 
cipally famous as the first law school of Europe. It claims the 
merit of extending the researches of medicine by introducing 
human dissection ; and in later times, it will be recollected that 
within its walls originated the discovery of galvanism. More 
than any other seat of science in the world, perhaps, it inherits 
the peculiar honor of having had the professor's chair in almost 
every department filled at some period or other by learned la- 
dies. Novella d' Andrea supplied her father's place in teaching 
the canon law ; Matilda Tambroni was professor of Greek ; 
Laura Bassi, a lady doctor of laws, had the chair of mathe- 
matics and natural philosophy ; and Madonna Manzolini gradu- 
ated in surgery, and taught one of itS- branches. 

The beauty of Christina de Pisan, another of these lady pro- 
fessors, is said to have been so fascinating that when she lectured 
it was necessary to have a curtain drawn before her, in order 
that the students might not be distracted by her charming face 
from the drier study of the law. 

I fancy that after admiring the lofty leaning edifice at Pisa, 
with its circular columns and exquisite masonry rising literally 
like a dreamy " castle in the air," most persons will be rnuch 
disappointed in visiting the square brick curiosities, apparently 
about to tumble down, which are pointed out as the true leaning 
towers of Bologna. The latter resemble the former in archi- 
tectural beauty about as much as a tall chimney does an ele- 
gant church. 



Ghap. XXXIII.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 203 



sf; 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Early Rising — Moonlight — Lombardy — The Po — Ferrara — Italian Politics — 
Palazzo d'Este — Tasso's Prison. < 

Having taken my place for Ferrara oyer night, in my great 
anxiety iiot to be delayed, I engaged a couple of assistants in 
the virtuous practice of early rising. A little after three in the 
morning I was gliding stealthily along in the shadow of the ijn- 
posing gloomy arcades with which so many of the sidewalks of 
Bologna are covered. The city was as silent as a graveyard, 
the sky was intensely clear and blue, and the full, round moon 
shed a flood of light over spires, towers, and ruined palaces, 
that made the whole seem like the fairy creation of a dream. On 
coming to the appointed place and knocking, not the least sign 
of life could be perceived, and for some time I stood alone in the 
street, looking anxiously upward and around, and might have 
passed for a bewildered policeman, or disappointed serenader. 

One by one a group of three or four gathered in the street 
with carpet-bags and signs of itinerancy, and at last the door 
opened, and we made the acquaintance of a kind of extensive 
omnibus, in which each chose a corner, and the company ar- 
ranged themselves in various positions, the most fashionable of 
which seemed the classic one between lying and sitting, in 
which certain respectable people, some tv/o thousand years 
since, used to t^ake their dinner. The road was so smooth as 
scarcely to disturb our slumbers, and daylight found us in the 
midst of the extensive dead level of the valley of the Po. Like 
the waters of the Nile, those of this famous river are the source 
of great fertility, only that in the latter case the irrigation is en- 
tirely artificial, and is controlled by enormous embankments 
and canals, and ditches innumerable. The fields are divided 



204 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIIf. 

into oblong squares a few rods in width, separated by the 
smaller of these ditches, and rows of willow and Lombardy 
poplar, which are closely trimmed for fuel. 

At proper periods the land is flooded by suitable contriv- 
ances, and receives a rich sediment ; and some of these artificial 
inundations covered the fields and places as we passed. To- 
ward noon we entered rather violently the quiet, ancient city of 
Ferrara. The arrival of a diligence appeared to be quite an 
important event, and a numerous detachment of beggars, guides, 
policemen, and other functionaries stood drawn up to receive 
us. Many of these were needed, to lessen those petty vexations 
of traveling which in Italy are at times quite annoying to quiet 
people. At every town you must have a new name to your 
passport, to depart in peace ; and a commissioner commonly 
waits upon you to relieve yoii of the duty for a small sum on 
your first an'ival ; if at all hurried, it is necessary to hire an at- 
tendant to find out for you the various objects of curiosity ; and 
in addition to these and the numerous objects of charity who 
piteously hold up their hands and flock around you, the ap- 
parition of a hat every time the horses are changed reminds you 
of your benevolent duties toward the postboys. 

Singling out for ray companion a bright-looking lad of six- 
teen, apparently rather proud of a little broken French, I un- 
dertook immediately the duty of seeing the town. My youno- 
guide was decidedly intelligent, and I succeeded in drawing 
from him quite an interesting account of his " life and travels." 
From books or tradition, he had a fair notion of the most beauti- 
ful paintings in the churches, knew the names of their authors, 
and I fancied there was a kindling of something like patriotic 
pride in his piercing eye as he pointed to the works of Garafalo, 
the Raphael of Ferrara. Then came a scantily-supplied mar- 
ket, and farther on was a fine old cathedral, with its beautiful 
Gothic front, and its picture of the Last Judgment inside, in 
which the artist has placed his enemies among the condemned, 



Chap. XXXIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 205 

and his friends among the elect, including in the respective 
groups a lady who had rejected him, and another who had ac- 
cepted him in marriage. 

Near the centre of the town we came to a massive square 
fortress, which frowned gloomily, and was surrounded by a deep 
moat and approached by bridges. Itwas'once tenanted by the 
princely House of Este, and it has associated with it thrilling 
recollections. There, stealthily, in one fatal night, Parisina and 
her lover met a cruel death ; there, too, in that prison-like 
dwelling, the highminded Princess Renee had furnished an 
asylum to the early reformers, when they were driven from al- 
most every other land. Huguenot leaders, fleeing from op- 
pression, once gathered in its halls ; and there, under an assumed 
name, Calvin himself was a guest. 

Deserted as Ferrara now appears to the visitor, he is remind- 
ed, too, that the munificence of her princes and the intelligence 
of her citizens made her, in more prosperous days, the sanctu- 
ary of genius. Her school of painting was one of the first in 
Italy ; and if Florence had her Dante, Ferrara had her Ariosto 
and her Tasso. In modern times, as in other parts of Italy, the 
light, so long dim, flickered more brightly after the agitation of 
the French Revolution ; and a square, ornamented by the repub- 
lican invaders, still exhibits a statue of the " Italian Homer." 
Indeed, in Italy, more than most countries of Europe, the mis- 
eries of this great civil commotion have been repaid by its fruits, 
and there more than in any other conquest is the era of French 
rule still gratefully remembered. It abolished the feudal laws, 
gi'eatly reduced the number of monks and idle ecclesiastics, and 
diverted the lands and revenues which maintained many of their 
religious establishments to other purposes ; it originated numer- 
ous roads and public . improvements, and devised systems of 
general education ; and it promoted the more capable to oflices of 
trust, and gave an impulse to the public mind that is felt to this 
day. Much as they might have been disposed, the rubers estab- 



206 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIII. 

lished by the Congress of Vienna could not safely undo all this. 
As proof of their jealousy of the newly-awakened spirit of 
liberty, the most extraordinary precautions were taken to crush 
it, and in accordance with an express stipulation, on their re- 
turn in 1815, Ferrara, though within the pope's dominions, has, 
till recently, been strongly garrisoned with Austrian troops. 
The revolution of the Carbonari at Naples, and the outbreak in 
Piedmont in 1821 ; the insurrections in Modena and the Papal 
States, suppressed by Austrian bayonets ten years later; the less 
formidable plots since, and the discontents which, up to the 
accession of the present pope, have crowded the prisons with 
political offenders, show that there is still patriotic feeling at 
work in the minds of the Italians which the utmost vigilance of 
their authorities can not entirely repress. 

On returning from the castle, we sought the spot whose asso- 
ciations have made it the most famous sightT in Ferrara. Bend- 
ing our way to the rear of a decayed pile, still occupied as a 
hospital, we entered and walked about in a gloomy basement 
cell, lighted from the yard by a grated window, and were told 
we were pacing Tasso's prison. Having been stung to remon- 
strance by the tyrannical caprice of his princely patron, the un- 
fortunate poet was here incarcerated under the false pretext of 
insanity for seven years, till he was at last released at the inter- 
cession of some of those powerful friends in the neighboring 
cities whom his genius had won. The scanty furniture and part 
of the door are said to have been carried away piecemeal, as 
relics, by visitors. Upon the walls, and externally, are seen 
the names of Byron, Casimir Delavigne, and some hundreds of 
others, known and unknown. At the instance of the keeper, I 
added my own to the list. 

Entering by invitation the sick- wards above, I found them 
more wretched in appearance than any I had ever seen. In 
one of them candles were burning, and a priest in white, with 
an attendant or two, was kneeling, gesticulating, and repeating 



Chap. XXXIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 207 

forms by the bedside of a dying man ; and the gloom of the 
dimly-lighted place, the deathly silence, and the sight of that 
sunken, pallid face inspired a feeling of deep sadness. 

I left my companion, and wandered through the city a while 
in congenial loneliness. It was a hazy, calm day, with the air 
of an American Indian summer, and it seemed to invite to con- 
templation. Few places speak more eloquently of fallen great- 
ness. It has lost three fourths of its former population; the 
Jews' quarter only prospers ; the grass grows in the wide, reg- 
ular streets ; whole rows of houses in the outskirts are closed 
and tenantless, or, without doors or windows, crumble to decay. 
Around is the unhealthy Polesina, whose exhalations give the 
inhabitants a haggard, sickly look. It is just above the level of 
the sea, and below that of the Po, whose waters every day 
threaten to complete its ruin ; and the traveler cares not to lin- 
ger long in dreary, desolate Ferrara. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Dull Entertainment — Crossing the Po — Nervous Affection — Rovigo — ^Padua 
— Perseverance — St. Anthony — Classical Discoveries. 

It is surely a great mercy that the world is not all a dead 
level. Perhaps one is never inore grateful for the ups and downs 
of his native planet, and all the wild things of creation, than 
after lazily crossing the stagnant plains of Lombardy. The eye 
is soon fatigued with a country where all but the sky is in straight 
lines. From the dull monotony of the landscape, and occa- 
sional night traveling, I remember enduring, for days together, 
an intolerable disposition to yawn. Sometimes I was awaken- 
ed from a sort of nightmare slumber by the stoppage of the 
diligence to change horses, and the attention of the needy pop- 



208 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIV. 

ulation that gathered round. There crept over nie a sort of 
fellow-feeUrig, that made me unusually charitable toward indo- 
lent people, and I neglected to take notes either of my sleeping 
or waking dreams. The turbid waters of the Po, as if it had 
been another Lethe, seemed to make one forgetful, and I be- 
came nearly a& tame as Phseton, after using it too long as a 
cold bath. There is a misty recollection of the dreary space 
between Ferrara and the poverty-stricken town on the papal 
side of the river, and I can just manage to conjure up shadowy 
images of low farmhouses — moldering walls, once white, be- 
come mottled and green with age and moisture— files of gray 
Roman oxen, dragging grain and farming implements over the 
plain — fields all ditched and ridged like a piece of corduroy — 
limbless trunks of willow and poplar in rows, like beheaded 
cabbages — men with queer-looking bats, and tawny peasant 
women, to whom a looking-glass would have been an afflic- 
tion. 

We crossed the main branch of the Po by attaching ourselves 
to the lower end of a string of boats, the uppermost of which 
was fastened, at some distance above, to a fixture in the middle 
of the river, and thus, by some arrangement, with the force of the 
current, without the splash of an oar, and with only a steersman, 
we glided across the muddy stream something in the style in 
which certain adventurous or naughty people were formerly 
represented to cross the Styx. 

The Austrian custom-house officers had been represented to 
me to be about as ceremonious and suspicious as Chinese man- 
darins ; and even in the smaller towns in the interior, for the 
least informality in a passport, the police were reported to be 
in the habit of escorting forgetful people to the frontier. I was 
feverishly looking forward for some weeks^ arrears of letters 
from home, which I supposed had missed me, and which I had 
directed to be forwarded to Vienna ; besides, from not expect- 
ing to have remained in northern Italy so long, I had thought- 



Chap. XXXIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 209 

lessly neglected, at the proper place, to draw a sufficient supply 
of the needful, and my exchequer threatened soon to become 
an exhausted receiver; my banker's letter of credit was only 
next available in the distant Austrian capital, and I felt a secret 
horror of a "perfect vacuum," equal to that which the old phi- 
losopher attributed to Dame Nature hei-self It was true, I 
consoled myself with the thought that my baggage was purified 
and condensed to the most inoffensive dimensions, on the poet- 
ical and practical principle that " Man wants but little here be- 
low." It was certain that my precious traveling-ticket, from 
salutary apprehensions, was highly charged in advance, with 
inky impressions of the double-headed eagle and German char- 
acters ; but a delay of a few days just then would have been 
disastrous ; and as we neared the opposite bank of the Po, and 
the boundaries of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, I confess I 
felt decidedly nervous. A pipe, even among savages, is a sign 
of peace. I caught a comforting glimpse of my anticipated 
foes, in blue coats and military caps, at a little distance, pas- 
sively inhaling the soothing weed, and I felt still better as, on 
presenting my effects and papers, I looked inquiringly into their 
broad, good-natured faces, and found them expressive of nothing 
more alarming than the love of smoke and beer. 

We were let off with a careful, but cautious examination ; 
my passport was all right, and with a lighter heart I looked 
back as we rattled along the top of the dike on the eastern side 
of the river. The country around, in exuberant fertility, lay 
flatly beneath us; and the muddy stream, like an immense 
aqueduct, coursed in places above the roofs of the houses. As 
geologists have told us, the effects of the gigantic system of em- 
bankments in Lombardy have been to elevate the rivers ; and, 
by confining them to their beds, and carrying their earthy de- 
posits more rapidly to the sea, during the Christian era alone, to 
cause the low shore to encroach in places for a space nearly 
twenty miles in breadth upon the Adriatic. Except the valley 



210 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIV. 

of the Arno, I saw no part of the country so carefully cultivated 
as portions of Austrian Italy. 

In the evening we arrived at the little cheerful city of Ho- 
vigo. After refreshing, I walked out a few minutes ; became 
interested in the tricks and gambols of the young population ; 
and, being much fatigued returned, with scarcely a single edi- 
fying observation. The most ancient event in the history of 
the place that my wearied brain could recall was, that it had 
given a title to one of the generals of Napoleon. 

Then came a long ride by misty moonlight — the splash of 
being ferried over a broad, rapid stream, which, on waking up, 
proved to be the Adige — thoughts or dreams of the marches 
and conflicts of the French and Austrians upon its banks; and 
then a relapse into the same yawning sensations, till at last the 
whip became more musical, and We wound, by the light of dim 
lamps, through streets darkened at the sides by heavy arches 
in the old Italian style, and some one muttered we were in Pa- 
dua. The diligence drove into the yard of a large hotel ; and, 
excessively tired, I hastened to a bed in the regions above. On 
turning to close the door, I found myself followed into my very 
bedroom by the apparition of an enterprising and impudent 
postillion, beseeching for an extra gratuity. Half amused at 
his ingenuity, I bought him off as speedily as possible, and 
threw myself upon the bed. Next day was spent in quietly 
strolling about the city. 

I was surprised to notice so many government lottery estab- 
lishments. The Italians, particularly of the lower classes, have 
a perfect passion for this species of gambling ; and the authori- 
ties, perhaps finding it difficult to suppress, every where make 
it a source of revenue. Any accident, or natural phenomenon, 
which can be tortured to refer mystically to a number, is said 
to cause a run upon it by the superstitious multitude.'' If a 
man, for instance, were to fall and break his leg in two places, 
there would probably be a rush for the number two. I had 



Chap. XXXIV.] LOITE RINGS IN EUROPE. 211 

the curiosity, one day in Naples, to compare, and I found the 
licensed lottery-offices considerably to exceed the book-stores. 
I supposed that the firmer government of Austria might regulate 
this matter much better ; but there seemed no great difference. 

Among the rest I sauntered into the magnificent Church of 
St. Anthony, the patron-saint of Padua,' to whom tradition 
attributes miracles innumerable. It is crowned with eight 
cupolas, something in the Oriental style, and contains exquisite 
carving and painting ; but one is sometimes fatigued with 
minute descriptions even of beautiful churches. The University 
of Padua possesses the most ancient botanical garden and ana- 
tomical theatre in the world. More especially in the depart- 
ment of medicine it still retains a portion of its ancient glory. 
In the catalogue of its professors, it has been honored with the 
names of Vesalius, Fallopius, Spigelius, and the illustrious Mor- 
gagni. At present, in the four faculties, it usually accommo- 
dates from fifteen hundred to two thousand students. 

As proof of their classical enthusiasm, it may be mentioned 
that, at the revival of learning in Italy during the middle ages, 
the citizens of Padua took absolute possession of the right to 
the nativity of Livy ; and finding a skeleton in a leaden coffin, 
near the spot where, according to tradition, had stood his 
house, the anatomical skill of the professors discovered it to be 
his bones. Portions were sent, by request, as precious relics, 
to king's : and the remainder was buried beneath a suitable 
monument with the most imposing ceremonies. More ambi- 
tiously still, in the thirteenth century, they dug up a marble 
sarcophagus, containing a gigantic bony frame, enveloped -in 
lead and cypress, with a sword in its hand, which, upon refer- 
ence to book, chapter, and verse in th^; ^lEneid, was pronoun- 
ced to be that of their great founder, Atenor, the Trojan ; and 
the poor heathen was honored with a burial in a Christian 
church in a style of which he had never dreamed. 



212 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXV. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Poetry and Steam — Bridging the Sea — Venice — Piazza of St. Mark — Ca- 
thedrals—Stealing a Patron — Doge's Palace- — CouncD. of Ten — Bridge of 

Sighs. 

Puff, puif, pufF, and away we flew, leaving Padua behind ; 
the head grew dizzy with the sight of farmhouses and poplars 
chasing each other backward over the level plain, and we seem- 
ed skimming the earth as if in the wooden-jointed tail of a 
little smoking comet. What an innovation to be calling upon 
the " Bride of the sea," on wheels by steam ! Yet, presently 
we came to the low margin of the Adriatic, and in the distance, 
bright and fairy, as if she had just floated up from the caves of 
ocean, and reposed in state upon its breast, with the waves kiss- 
ing her feet, lay beautiful Venice. 

Within the last few years a bridge for the railroad, intended 
to be completed to Milan, has been built, at enormous expense, 
all the way over the shallow sea from Venice to the mainland, for 
a distance of more than two miles. As we came to this the cars 
slackened their pace, and we commenced gently crossing the la- 
gune. The passage seemed to have lost much of its romance. 

How charming;- it would have been to have first floated to the 
sea-born city, as in days of yore, in one of her own gondolas, 
soothingly, as the spirits in Indian story were borne to their isl- 
and Paradise ! How pleasant to have tempted the gondoliers 
to sing from Tasso ! 

There was little time for idle speculation. In ten minutes 
we were safely deposited in Venice. It is built, as most are 
aware, upon some seventy or eighty lov^ islands, upon which, 
according to Gibbon, the Christian fugitives fi'om Aquelia and 
the mainland, in the sixth century, sought refuge from the 
sword of Attila and the Huns. 



Chap. XXXV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 213 

There is but very little tide in the Adriatic, and the lagune is 
sheltered from storms by long projecting banks toward the sea, 
and marble palaces and churches in airy. Oriental style seem to 
rise as out of the calm waters themselves. 

Communication is kept up between different parts of tbe city 
by about a hundred and fifty canals, and innumerable land pass- 
ages, like alleys, three or four feet wide, perforating the masses 
of houses, and crossing these water-streets by bridges. These 
again are arched, to admit of boats and gondolas beneath, and 
thus almost every house in Venice is accessible both by land 
and water. The wonderful stillness occasioned by the absence 
of paved streets, carriages, or horses — the gliding of beautiful 
fairy barks noiselessly here and there — the^effect-^f the rich, 
stately mansions of the ancient merchant-princes towering .amid 
state palaces and churches — and occasional glimpses of the sur- 
rounding blue sea that laves their marble thresholds — all con- 
spire to produce a strange impression at first, as if you were 
wandering in some enchanted place. 

After winding for a long time through narrow passages, I at 
last came to the great centre of attraction in Venice, the Square 
of St. Mark. It is one of the most splendid in Europe. On 
the east are the Cathedral of St. Mark and the Doge's Palace, 
while on the other sides are seen the splendid official residences 
of the ancient dignitaries of the republic, the more modern Pa- 
lazzo Reale, and the lofty Campanile. The most imposing of 
these, externally, perhaps, is the cathedral. It is a gorgeous 
pile of many-colored marbles, crowned by several domes, in 
Eastern style, with its greatest atU'action over its portal, in the 
shape of the famous gilt bronze horses, plundered from the 
Hippodrome of Constantinople, at its capture during the fourth 
crugade. They are somewhat celebrated for their travels, hav- 
ing started from parts unknown, and in addition to the places 
mentioned, having visited Alexandria, Rome, and more recently 
returned from a trip to Paris to grace the triumph of Napoleon. 



214 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXV. 

St. Mark's seems to have been the fruit of that mingling of su- 
perstition, religious zeal, and intense patriotic pride peculiar to 
some of the Italian republics in earlier times. 

Some Venetian traders visiting the port of Alexandria, in the 
ninth century, contrived to bribe the priests to substitute the 
body of a lady saint for the reputed remains of St. Mark ; and 
after concealing the fruits of their pious theft in a furled sail, 
from the infidel officer in search, they succeeded in making 
their escape to Venice, and were greeted by the whole city 
with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy. St. Mark 
was solemnly adopted as the patron-saint of the republic. His 
effigy or his lion thenceforth figured on the coins and standards 
of the republic, and the rallying cry of her citizens in tumult, or 
her soldiers in battle, was, ever after, Viva San Marco ! The 
magnificent church we have been describing, was designed to 
his honor, and we are told that for a lengthened period during 
its erection the Venetian merchants returning from every part 
of the Mediterranean vied with each other in bringing home 
beautiful marbles and treasures to enrich this national monu- 
ment. Interiorly, its gloominess prevents the profusion of pre- 
cious stones, mosaics, and costly ornaments, with which it is 
decorated, from being seen to advantage. 

In ancient times the churchwardens, or guardians of the 
treasures of St. Mark, were a numerous and highly privileged 
body. They were lodged in a palace, and in the later and 
more venal days of the republic, when dignities were bartered 
for money, the place was sold for a hundred thousand crowns. 

A little distance from St. Mark's is its campanile, or bell- 
tower, three hundred feet high. I panted up the steps one 
day, and was richly repaid by a magnificent view of the fairy 
city beneath, the shipping in port, the distant curved shore, and 
the calm sea around, dotted with tributary islands. Opposite 
this tower is the famous town clock, with its dial plate glitter- 
ing in gold and azure, and exhibiting certain motions of the 



Ohap. XXXV.] LOITERINGS in EUROPE, 213 



heavenly bodies. Bronze images of two men, with hammers, 
strike the hours, one of whom is said to have been once guilty 
of manslaughter, by disturbing, with an unlucky blow, the grav- 
ity of an unfortunate workman. The space about the front of 
the cathedral every where presents interesting memorials. Fh'st 
come the bronze bases to receive the masts, from which were 
anciently suspended the three gonfalons of silk and gold, rep- 
resenting the three rich dominions of the republic, Venice, Cy- 
prus, and Morea ; then, as you traverse the Piazzetta toward 
the water, are seen the curiously-sculptured square piers of St. 
John of Acre, carried away from the gates of that city ; the 
Stone of Shame, where bankrupts were once freed and humilia- 
ted ; and on the very edge of the port stand the two celebrated 
columns, crowned with the winged lion of St. Mark, and the 
statue of St. Theodore, his predecessor in the care of the city, 
between which criminals were always executed. Of these 
columns there is a curious tradition. The Venetians having 
brought them as a prize from Constantinople, were puzzled to 
fix them steadily upright, and offered a suitable reward for this 
purpose. A certain accomplished gentlemen, whose feats had 
gained him the appellation of" Nick, the Blackleg," succeed- 
ed, and claimed, as the price of his labor, the privilege of play- 
ing between the columns prohibited games of chance. The 
authorities, feehng bound by their promise, could not refuse ; 
but defeated his purpose by assigning it as the place for the 
expiation of guilt with blood, and thus making it an ill-omened 
spot, dreaded by the superstitious multitude. 

Between St. Mark's and the mole stands the magnificent 
Doge's Palace. After being partially destroyed by fire two 
or three times, it assumed its present form in the sixteenth 
century. Ascending the " Giant's Stairs," I was soon wander- 
ing among its stately apartments. Few places ever called up 
more thrilling remembrances. The walls are adorned with rep- 
resentations of the great naval victory of Don John of Austria 



216 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXV. 

and the Venetians over the Turks at Lepanto, and many other 
triumphs and events in the history of the republic, by Paul Ve- 
ronese, Tintoretto, and other masters of the Venetian school ; 
and in the series of portraits of the doges there is only one 
vacancy, and the beholder is reminded of a fearful tragedy as 
he gazes upon a black space in the frame where the likeness 
should be, and reads a Latin inscription, stating, " This is the 
place of Marino Faliero, beheaded for crimes." 

One of the chambers was pointed out as that of the famous 
Council of Ten. This odious tribunal of a jealous aristocracy, 
it will be remembered, was clad with fearful powers, and for 
five centuries ruled the destinies of Venice. The fortune and 
life of every citizen were entirely at their mercy. Their will 
^vas law. The unhappy accused never confronted their ac- 
cusers, were sometimes refused even a hearing, and their death, 
in various horrid forms, w^as as secret as their condemnation. 
But, to make matters w^orse, the Council of Ten, at a later 
period, deputed these unlimited powers to three inquisitors of 
state. The whole city was filled with paid spies. 

In a part of the walls of the palace I was shown the openings 
where once gaped the terrible lions' mouths to receive anony- 
mous accusations. Prisoners were either confined in hot, un- 
wholesome places for the purpose, just beneath the leads of the 
roof of the palace, or sent to the dark dungeons w^e visited beneath 
the level of the water. Instruments ready for strangling, be- 
heading, and various fonns of death, were kept in these gloomy 
recesses. Between the Doge's Palace and a sort of Bastile, 
a canal runs, where a gondola used statedly to wait to receive 
the bodies of the victims. Some distance aloft is a closed gallery 
connecting the two edifices, by which it is said the condemned 
crossed the fatal stream never to return ; and I still remember 
the involuntary shudder that came, as from the surface below I 
gazed upward on the " Bridge of Sighs." 



Chap. XXXVI.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 217 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Sentimental Habit — Housetop Reflections— A Gondola — Grand Canal — 
Bridge of the Rialto — Trieste — Crossing the Julian Alps — Camiola — 
Styria. 

I HAVE always had a special fondness for meditating by 
moonlight. It may be from an instinct, like that of those lady 
eages who never plant vegetables without consulting that po- 
tent luminary, or from poetical associations ; but certain it is 
I am frequently attacked with fits of tender enthusiasm on the 
appearance of her ladyship the queen of the night. On a 
housetop in Venice — gazing on fairy palaces, and the moonlit 
sea — how romantic ! So thought I, as I stood leaning over the 
Square of St. Mark, and the gorgeous piles around, one bright, 
cool evening. How rich was the story of that spot ! From 
yonder palace for centuries the doge and his train, on the morn- 
ing of the Feast of Ascension, had issued forth to pay their de- 
votions ; and having embarked on board the shining Bucentaur, 
with festive shouts, had visited the shore of Lido, and renewed 
the marriage rites of Venice w^th the sea. AVithin the portal 
of that church. Pope Alexander HI. had placed his foot upon 
the neck of a warlike emperor, long his enemy, haughtily 
breathing, " The young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread 
under thy feet." It was within that same glorious old pile of 
vSt. Mark's that the counts of Flanders, Champagne, and Blois, 
and a mail-clad host, had gathered, with the merchant-princes 
of Venice to hear mass for the last time before the sailinor of 
their splendid armament for the fourth crasade ; and in the 
midst of the solemnities the Doge Dandolo, eighty-four years 
of age, and blind, had risen and offered to take the sign of the 
cross and be their leader, and an answering shout had risen, 

K 



218 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVl. 



" In God's name do as you have said !" and the veteran had 
tottered forth to be the conqueror of Constantinople. The place 
had v^itnessed some of the most splendid pageants the world 
had ever seen. Beneath an awning stretched from opposite 
palaces, and converting the whole Square of St, Mark's into a 
magnificent saloon, glittering with artificial stars, and laid with 
the richest cai^ets of the East, Henry III. of Fi'ance had found 
the senate waiting in state to receive their royal guest. 

That palace, and its dungeons top, had witnessed dark deeds 
innumerable. Ther^ Carrara, the vanquished Lord of Padua, 
and his two sons, under pretext of treating for peace, had been 
treacherously murdered; and there the brave General Carmag- 
nuola had expiated his misfortunes with his blood. Even in our 
own times, fettered by the despotism of Austria, there had 
meekly pined poor Silvio Pellico. 

I was getting on famously, and meditating a descent upon 
the bright waters in a gondola^ when a pelting rain-storm quench- 
ed my fire, and sent me to bed. 

Sauntering along the edge of the Rialto, one day, I came to 
a place where a collection of gondolas lay moored, with their 
steersmen, waiting patiently for passengers, as a lot of London 
cabmen. I was bent on a trip on this magnificent canal. The 
gondola, as most are aware, is a beautiful little pleasure-barge, 
painted black, drawing but a few inches of water, with a lofty, 
picturesque prow, and a comfortable little inclosure for sitting, 
canopied over and cushioned beneath. It is managed by one 
or two rowers standing up, and looks exceedingly pietty when 
moving through the water. 

Presently we were floating along past splendid palaces of the 
ancient Venetian nobles. The shores on both sides are lined 
by these proud edifices. At last we came to the famous Bridge 
of the Rialto. It consists of a single lofty arch with a span of 
near a hundred feet. There are three divisions like streets for 
crossing, and it is ornamented with three rows of shops. 



Chap. XXXVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 219 

The palaces of Venice, and the Academy of Fine Arts, con- 
tain a great many choice paintings from her own masters, many 
of them on patriotic subjects. But who can represent the ex- 
quisite coloring of Titian, Paul Veronese, or Tintoretto by 
cold, written description ] 

I had my passport all ready, and very comfortably, as I 
thought, reserved the whole of my last day in Venice for a visit 
to the ancient armory and curiosities of the Arsenal. On ar- 
riving at the place, the gates were provokingly shut, and the 
keepers as immovable as the marble lions in front. It was 
one of their numerous saints' days. I remonstrated so feelingly, 
and appealed to their love of money so strongly, that they took 
me to a higher functionary, to whom I made my best bow, and 
lisped my most soothing signore for permission. *' No, signore," 
said he, " not to-day, if you were an archduke." Annoyed and 
feverish to get on, 1 determined not to pay him the proposed 
compliment of remaining another day. 

So, in a pelting storm, like that in Venetian tradition, in 
which St. Mark was ferried across the harbor by the affrighted 
fisherman, to frustrate the designs of a galley full of imps and 
save the city, I crossed the Piazza of St. Mark, at four o'clock 
in the morning, and with three suffering fellow-creatures shoved 
off to the steamer. 

The steamer puffed, and the bell rang ominously, and, amid 
a perfect hubbub and pitchy darkness, we stood for the Adri- 
atic. I retired to the cabin to ruminate and dry. Daylight 
and breakfast came, the poor soldiers and knapsacks on deck 
were stowed away, the storm subsided, and before noon I was 
peacefully walking the deck and reflecting on the romantic 
associations of that storied sea. We were in one of the Aus- 
trian Lloyd Company's fleet and strong steamers, such as they 
are now sending all over the eastern Mediterranean. 

In the afternoon we caught a glimpse of the wavy outline of 
the eastern shore of the Adriatic, backed by mountains, and to- 



220 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE [Chap. XXXVI. 

ward evening we ran among a crowd of merchantmen, ships of 
war, and steamers into the port of Trieste. The mingUng of 
different tongues on shore reminded one of Marseilles, only that 
the Italian was the staple instead of French, and German 
came next. Within little more than a century it has risen, by 
imperial favor and natural advantages, from being a small town 
to be the first seaport of the Austrian empire, and its choice by - 
the English as the line of the overland route for India has added 
much to its prospects. It is rather prettily nestled at the foot 
of hills, rising in the background. The stir about the wharves, 
the newness of the houses, and the width of the streets, remind- 
ed me of one of our own Atlantic cities. 

I was anxious to take the first conveyance and hasten over 
the mountains northward for Vienna. There were two kinds, 
a larger and slower vehicle, corresponding with the French dil- 
igence ; and a smaller, swifter conveyance, carrying the mails 
and three passengers, one beside the driver and two inside. I 
chose the latter. My immediate companion was an Austrian 
captain, who proved to be one of the most intelligent and kind 
traveling acquaintances I ever met. Eying me good-naturedly 
as we were stepping into the vehicle, and recognizing me as a 
stranger, he politely addressed me in French, telling me to have 
at command all my traveling wardrobe, as the mild air of 
Trieste would soon be exchanged for the snow-blasts of the 
mountains. We toiled up the heights back of the town, bade 
adieu to the Adriatic and balmy Italy, and, in a few hours, in 
spite of my blanket and pilot coat, my teeth were chattering, and 
my knees shaking as with the ague. I rubbed a corner of a 
pane, iced by my breath, and looked upon bleak hills and rocks 
covered with snows, as if we had exchanged the sunny south 
for Greenland. I had simply caught December on the Julian 
Alps. The change was too violent, and I suffered terribly. 
But the good captain protected me tenderly, and insisted on 
sharing with me his warmer covering ; and by his fund of good 



Chap. XXXVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 221 

humor and cheerful conversation during that memorable night, 
enabled me at times, in spite of my shivering, to indulge in a 
sort of grim smile — so that I fancy if I had actually congealed, 
and been taken out next morning as a frozen curiosity, could I 
have "kept my -face," I should have furnished, position and all, 
the most perfect realization of the poet's id!ea of'* Patience on a 
monument, smiling at G-rief." 

The hilly country of Carniola w^as thickly covered with snow, 
and the peasants were driving about with their sledges. Dur- 
ing the second day I happened to pull out an English book, 
and, to my astonishment, the captain changed from fluent French 
to good English, and gave capital criticisms on our best poets. 
I learned afterward, from a friend, that he conversed well in 
some eight languages. Observing that the windows of the farm- 
houses were invariably small, and secured with iron bars, like 
prisons, and recollecting certain imputations against their hospi- 
tality, as well as that of their neighbors of Carinthia, I inquir- 
ed of my friend as to the truth of the insinuation contained in 
the couplet from Groldsmith : 

" Or onward where the rude Carinthian boor, 
Against the houseless stranger shuts the door." 

He stoutly denied the charge. 

The sight of frequent wooded spots, and comfortable small 
farmhouses among the hills, strongly reminded me of the ap- 
pearance of some of the more mountainous portions of our own 
country. The dress and rugged aspect of the people, and their 
harsh language, showed that we had left every trace of Italian 
character behind, and more and more as we advanced north- 
ward the rude Sclavonian appeared verging toward the Ger- 
man. 

Passing through Laibach, and one or two smaller towns and 
villages, we at last entered the mountainous part of Styria, 
and driving at the fastest speed, and taking mere excuses for 



222 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIT. 

meals, late the second night we descended into the little an- 
cient town of Cilly, quite benumbed and faint, and with just 
force enough left to stammer to the landlady the hungry Ger- 
man question, " Hahen sie etwas zu essen ?" 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

A Discovery — Locomotive Memorial — Gratz — Country — Archduke — Iron — 
Smoke — Vienna by Snow-storm — Suburb City — Austrian Manners. 

When I rose next morning and began to look about me, I 
found myself decidedly in a new country. The immense round 
earthen stove in the corner of my room, like the pipe of a steam- 
er — the little feather-bed, too short at the head and not long 
enough at the foot, that had been over me instead of under me, 
and that it had so puzzled me to balance in my sleep — the 
fat, blooming landlady — the bill the most moderate on the Con- 
tinent — the peasant houses with thick walls and low roofs — the 
broad people with little caps — the hearty, kind good morning 
[guten morgeny — the straw-colored beer in long glasses — the or- 
namented pipes, and the smoke that came from them— were 
all German. It was a still wintry morning, and the sun was 
glistening brightly on the deep snows of the surrounding hills. 
I walked out to try and get a near view of an old ruin belong- 
ing to the ancient counts of Cilly, once the lords of all Carin- 
thia ; but the snow chilled my ardor. 

The railroad that (if they can tunnel or scale the Alps be- 
tween) is intended to be completed from Vienna all the way to 
Trieste, now reaches as far as Cilly. On applying for my ticket 
at the little station-house, I noticed on the engine the name of 
the maker, " W. Norris." I recognized it immediately as the 
mark of our enterprising countryman ; and the unexpected 



Chap. XXXVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 223 

meeting with the slightest memorial of home in the wilds of 
Styria was enough to cause quite a thrill. 

As in our rapid flight by railroad, we came to the more 
level country, the temperature became much milder. There 
was an air of plenty and domestic comfort about the dwellings 
of the rural population that was quite pleasing. We crossed 
the Drave and halted at Marburg on the opposite bank, and, 
skirting in places the frontiers of Hungary, traversed a well- 
cultivated region, and stopped, at last, at Gratz, the capital of 
Styria. It contains a scientific institution with lectures, and a 
museum, for the study of natural history, founded by the pa- 
riotic and greatly beloved Archduke John. 

Forsaking the pomp of courts for the dress and manners of 
his favorite Styrians, this prince has married the daughter of a 
postmaster, encountered in one of his hunting excursions, and, 
by living familiarly among them, and encouraging every lauda- 
ble enterprise, has succeeded in acquiring immense influence. 

Styria is still as famous for its excellent iron as it was in the 
time of the Romans. There is a legend among the miners, 
that, at the expulsion of the Romans by the barbarians of the 
North, the Genius of the Mountains appeared to the new-com- 
ers, and said, " Take your choice : will you have gold for a 
year ?— silver for twenty years 1 — or iron forever V They wise- 
ly accepted the last. 

Gratz is a very cheery city and delightfully situated. The 
necessaries of life abound, and living is said to be cheaper than 
in any other city of Europe. 

Taking the cars again, we crossed the Mur, and pushed 
rapidly on to the mountain pass of the Sommering. Here we 
were unpacked from the cars and transferred to carriages 
drawn by horses, with which, in three or four hours, we scaled 
the mountains, and took the railroad again on the other side. 
All the passengers seemed inveterate smokers. There was a 
regulation posted up in the cars obliging all persons to use 



224 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIL 

pipes secured with a cover or lid from causing accidents by 
fire, and forbidding smoking, except with the consent of the 
company ; but the inhalers being an overwhelming majority 
always ruled. It was intensely cold, and the atmosphere in- 
side the cars was at times perfectly thick and dismal. Though 
never yet a partaker, I have always enjoyed the sight of the 
pleasure of smoking in others. I can conjure up the faces of 
dear friends that have never beamed so kindly, never seemed 
so contented with this sorrowful world, as when, after a social 
repast, or in the dim twilight, softly as the sighing of a fairy, 
curled from their lips wreaths of peaceful smoke. But my lib- 
eral sentiments were in vain, and, more than the most delicate 
German lady, I coughed and panted for an open corner of the 
window. Indeed, the ladies seemed to have admirably disci- 
plined themselves to the puffing propensities of their partners. 

At last, we reached Vienna in the midst of a furious snow- 
storm. I escaped from the cars, and took up my quarters at a 
clean, spacious hotel, as I fancied in the city. It was only the 
Vorstadt, a sort of outer city, extending like an immense sub- 
urb a little distance round the ancient wailed city proper. Be- 
tween this outside city and the inner one, there is an immense 
pleasure-ground a quarter of a mile wide, laid out with walks, 
and ornamented with trees, and extending like a belt round 
the whole of the old city. It is used for military exercises and 
other purposes, and gives Vienna a different appearance from 
any city in Europe, constituting an immense breathing-place, 
as it were, for the citizens. After crossing this broad, vacant 
space, you come to a ditch some twenty or thirty feet deep, 
inside of which are the defenses of the old city walls that an- 
ciently resisted the Turks ; and you enter by gates and gloomy 
passages into the Paris of Germany. Within, all is bustHng 
gayety. Only with the evidences of the lively pursuits of 
pleasure, there is more of stately magnificence than in the 
French capital. It is situated in the flat basin of the Danube, 



Chap. XXXVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE, 225 

about two miles from that noble stream. The streets are nar- 
row but very cheery, the shops splendid, the houses massive 
and lofty, and the streaming of gay throngs and the dashing of 
rich equipages through every passage and square of the central 
or old city keep the stranger in constant excitement. Before 
the entrances to the numerous dwellings' of the nobility resi- 
dent in Vienna, you see in winter a livery greatcoat lined with 
fur, surmounted with huge bear-skin collars, and stuffed with 
tall, red-faced porters, standing passively all day long. You are 
soon reminded, too, that it is the capital of a large- empire, by 
meeting in the streets the dress and physiognomy of some 
dozen different nations. Germans, Bohemians, Poles, Hun- 
garians, Greeks, Italians, Dalmatians, Tyrolese, and all the in- 
termediate varieties, are curiously blended. Encircling the 
whole of the old city is a mound of earth, some fifteen or 
twenty feet high, two or three rods in width, and faced ex- 
ternally with a stone wall. It was this fortification which 
saved the city in two sieges by the Turks. Since its capture 
by Napoleon it has been leveled on the top, and forms a de- 
lightful dry pleasure-walk for all classes, from royalty down- 
w^ards. It served me for a daily promenade the greater part 
of the winter. There is scarcely a better chance for a stranger 
at this season to get a general glance at the Viennese than at 
the hour when it is most crowded. 

Almost the first features that strike the attention of a stranger 
with the Austrians, and the Viennese in particular, is their air 
of contented gayety. The latter, indeed, have a proverb, " One 
lives to live" (" Man leht um zu leberC) — and they zealously ob- 
serve it in their own way. Austria is a wine country ; food, 
clothing, the necessaries, and even the luxuries of life are ex- 
ceedingly cheap. The government, for political purposes, care- 
fully assists in providing for the amusement of all classes. 
Vienna is, perhaps, the most musical city in the world. I 
have heard nearly the whole assembly in one of their Catli- 



226 LOTTERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVII. 

olic churches join with the organ in chanting a beautiful 
and difficult anthem ; and the leading attraction in Vienna 
for years has been Strauss's famous band. The whole pop- 
ulation, too, appear to let off their exuberant spirits through 
their heels. More than one half of the placards you see in the 
streets are of music and dancing. During summer, the citi- 
zens are said to go out to the beautiful environs of Vienna to 
waltz in the open air. In winter, the rich gather in splendid 
halls ; the poor meet merrily at the smaller places, or rush to 
the shows and dancing of the " Elisium," a fairy cavern be- 
neath the city ; and on a frosty morning, the very children in 
the streets may be sometimes seen frisking about to measured 
steps to keep themselves warm. As in all popular assemblies 
in Austria, the police are sure to be always present at these 
festivities to preserve decorum. 

I shall never forget the expression of blank astonishment in 
the faces of several Viennese friends, at different times, as I 
tried to explain to them the conscientious scruples which many 
of the religious community in our own country have to such 
light amusements. The stranger is often surprised with the 
warmth of heart and generous hospitality of the Austrians, and, 
in fact, all the Germans. 

One is struck at first, too, with their ceremonious yet sincere 
politeness. It is a m.ortal offense any where in Austria to enter 
into any apartment, office, or establishment without being un- 
covered. Some members of the royal family visiting the man- 
ufactory of a friend doffed their hats to the humblest of the 
workmen. More than French politeness, tlie German seems 
unaffected and earnest. It is amusing to witness the formida- 
ble bows and interchange of civilities between two postil- 
lions meeting in a cafe. The higher classes often mingle with 
the common people with much freedom. Happening to meet 
some of the Austrian nobility quietly paying their respects to 
the social circle of a friend, I was struck with their good-na- 



Chap. XXXVIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 227 



tured communicativeness, and the ease with which they moved 
in a mixed company. 

One day after dinner, a friend, as recreation, gave me a lec- 
ture on German titles. An ordinary married lady is address- 
ed simply Frau (woman), or, more politely. Madam ; if of a 
higher grade, Gnadige Frau (Gracious Madam); if the husband 
have a government office she takes the title of her husband 
with a feminine termination, as Madam Directress, Madame 
Judgess, Madame Generaless. In speaking to an unmarried 
lady, you say Fraulein, or the French Mademoiselle. Gentlemen 
have an abundance of high-sounding appellations, from plain 
Mein Herr, to Ilerr Von (ranking the English Esquire), Rath 
(Councilor), and many others, depending on the grade or pro- 
fession up to the different orders of nobility. It is customary 
to address persons by titles above their real rank, and to be 
profuse with compliments. Some of the more exquisite of 
these are really curious. In Vienna you frequently hear, as a 
parting salutation, or courteous acknowledgment to a lady, " I 
kiss your hand, gracious madam ;" and in a courtly way the 
action is sometimes suited to the word. 



228 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIII. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Street Lecture — "Declaring Intentions" — Austrian Government — Education 
— Policy — Italian Question — Emperor and Empress — St. Stephen's — Mon- 
ument. 

"Why have you repaid the saving of your capital and country 
from the Turks, by John Sobieski and his Poles, by helping to 
enslave Poland," said I, warmly, to a Vienna friend, as we were 
walking through the Prater one day, about the time of the Cra- 
cow troubles. 

" The people do not i-ule here, as in your country and Eng- 
land, or that never would have happened," he replied. " We are 
governed by Metternich and the Archduke Louis." But the 
emperor — " The emperor is a dwarfish personage with a large 
head and a very weak intellect," he muttered, in a low tone, 
looking around to see if any one was near. 

The Prater is an immense pleasure-ground planted with trees, 
laid out in drives, stretching away to the Danube, and constitutes 
the Hyde Park or Champs Elysees of Vienna. " Do you see 
those open spots there ?" said he ; " those are the places where 
the government provide shows and amusements for the populace 
to prevent them from thinking of politics." 

The first reception of a stranger in Vienna is apt to give him 
an exaggerated impression of the arbitrary and jealous charac- 
ter of the government. His baggage is searched for seditious 
publications, and other things, at the gates. Frequently he is 
subjected to a very inquisitive examination on applying at the 
police-office for the necessary written permission to remain be- 
yond the first day in the city. I was questioned to give the 
names of the fi-iends to whom I had letters of introduction, the 



Chap. XXXVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 229 

business that had brought me to Vienna, the time I wished to 
remain, and the studies and pursuits I intended to follow. In 
fact, one is required, as in some other delicate affairs, fully " to 
declare his intentions." After this ordeal you are given in ex- 
change for your passport 9. paper allowing you to remain, 
which you are obliged to return and have registered with every 
change in your residence, and which must generally be renew- 
ed every month or six weeks. Some friend, too, perhaps 
quietly informs you that the police keep a sort of domestic his- 
tory of the doings of every citizen and stranger, and that if you 
talk politics freely in the cafes, you will probably hear of it 
again, and if you are refractory, and very meddlesome, you may 
be sent to the frontier under an escort. You find, too, that the 
censorship of the press is very rigid, and many foreign journals 
you have been in the habit of reading are often temporarily or 
permanently stopped. Yet if you are quiet, you have no fur- 
ther trouble. Every police functionary is very polite to you. 
In spite of these things, and your preconceived notions, the peo- 
ple seem wonderfully happy and contented. The peasantry 
seem the most carelessly joyous race in Europe. Austria prop- 
er and the Tyrol, having been favored for generations, are ex- 
ceedingly loyal. To every Austrian subject of good character, 
from the most distant province, is conceded the privilege of a 
personal interview with his sovereign, for the purpose of re- 
dressing any grievance or asking a favor. 

Indeed, in spite of one's prejudices, the government seems 
very paternal. Perhaps the visitor from the North, who 
has expected to find a land of despotism and darkness, is 
surprised to discover that the common people are the most 
carefully educated of any country in Europe, except Prus- 
sia. Public instruction has been liberally provided by the 
state at great expense since the time of Maria Theresa. The 
system comprehends primary and real schools [Real Schulen), 
gymnasia, and normal establishments for teachers, and is very 



230 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

similar to that of Prussia. Books and gratuitous instruction 
are carefully provided for the very poorest. No person can 
marry or set up in business without a vv^ritten certificate of at- 
tendance a certain number of years at school, and manufac- 
turers employing children are obliged to send them, at stipula- 
ted times, to school. It is true that the government, v^ith great 
watchfulness, interferes with the minutest details of education, 
examines every school-book, and ascertains that its favorite re- 
ligion and passive loyalty are carefully taught ; yet Protestants 
and Greeks are allowed to have their own state-paid schools 
when sufficiently numerous, and, when a minority, in Catholic 
schools, their children permitted to retire during the hours 
when the priest catechises the children. 

With many such excellent domestic institutions, it may seem 
strange that Austria should so jealously oppose every liberal 
movement in Italy and elsewhere. Doubtless her leading mo- 
tive is fear. She has a numerous and jealous nobility. With a 
population of some thirty-three millions, or equal to that of 
France, she is much weakened by being divided into several 
distinct nations differing in language and religion, some of 
whom are discontented. Part of Galicia was recently in a 
state of dangerous anarchy; Hungary, with a tolerable consti- 
tution, has lately obtained many reforms and has demanded 
more; Bohemia is impatiently asking for an extension of her 
liberties ; the peasantry of the Tyrol have succeeded in obtain- 
ing a sort of representation, without whose consent they can not 
be taxed ; Austrian Italy is seeking for a constitution, and, in 
spite of marriage alliances artfully cemented between the im- 
perial family and almost every reigning house in Italy, and spite 
of the bayonets on the Po to overawe sympathy and to guard 
her new possessions, every echo to the liberal opinions of the 
new pope, and every popular demonstration in the Papal States, 
Tuscany, or Piedmont "are felt in Lombardy, and watched with 
feverish anxiety by Austria. It is not very likely that she will 



Chap. XXXVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 231 

do more than try to intimidate her Hberal neighbors. There 
are too many internal weaknesses, and Russia is plotting at the 
mouth of the Danube. Austria is probably too cautious and 
temporizing to risk an aggressive war. The provinces nearest 
the capital, pacified by the early reforms of the far-sighted Jo- 
seph 11. , are doubtless contented and loyal, and capable of re- 
sisting invasion, as they were on the fields of Aspern and Wa- 
gram ; but an unnecessary crusade against Italian liberty, and the 
head of their religion, with the prospect of the hostile fleet of 
some sympathizing power in the Adriatic is quite another mat- 
ter. Much, however, must depend on the moderation and cour- 
age of the Italians; and with so many slumbering elements of 
a conflagration it is difiicult to foretell the result. Yet, with all 
her supposed influence in discouraging liberal concessions in 
Italy, Switzerland, and Prussia, it is pleasing to observe that 
Austria is quietly reforming at home, and very recently the cus- 
tom has been introduced of annually printing, for public inspec- 
tion, a full statement of all the expenses of the government. 

At the invitation of a friend, holding a situation under the 
government, I went with him one day to the palace, to see the 
emperor passing in state to the Imperial Chapel. A courtly 
crowd in military dresses and decorations were present. The 
German, Hungarian, and Italian body-guards, in splendid em- 
broidered uniforms of their different countries, were drawn up 
in two files, and presently, the emperor, in a rather plain military 
dress, in company with half a dozen dignitaries, came walking 
quietly through the apartments between the files of the guards. 

The person of the emperor was exceedingly diminutive. He 
had a good-natured countenance, and a head so large as to ap- 
pear deformed. With a train of lady attendants followed the 
empress. She was tall, stately, and good-looking, with dark 
eyes and Italian features. I followed to the chapel and listened 
to some exquisite music and a smooth discourse. 

I confess I was afterward agreeably surprised at the quiet, 



232 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

simple tastes of the imperial family in some things. Walking 
along the public promenade one day near his palace, I encoun- 
tered the veteran Archduke Charles, once the valiant opponent 
of Napoleon, in a plain dress, taking a morning walk all alone. 
Another time, near the same spot, a friend and I met the em- 
peror, w^alking with a single companion, in a rather common 
blue overcoat ; and had not my friend recognized and saluted 
him, I should have taken him to be of the rank of a respectable 
shopkeeper. He bowed politely in return. A servant was af- 
terward discovered lingering at some distance behind. 

Vienna has many interesting sights. One of the most con- 
spicuous of these is her grand, old Gothic Cathedral of St. Ste- 
phen's. It is gloomy, and yet imposing and elegant. I remem- 
ber stealing quietly in on Christmas Eve. The grand ceremo- 
nies had not yet began, and the place was but partially lighted 
and filled. But the whispers of those at the confessionals — the 
echoed tread of scattered worshipers — the group gathered 
round a picture of the Virgin, with the light of a lamp reflected 
on their faces — the priests and attendants in their robes cross- 
ing themselves, or gliding softly here and there — the outlines of 
the. Gothic arches and tracery of the vast fabric receding away 
in the dimness of night, produced a stranga effect. 

On a clear day I mounted to the top of its very lofty steeple. 
The views of the windings of the silvery Danube — the island 
of Lobau, where Napoleon was once cooped up with his army 
• — the storied fields of Aspern and Wagram — and the romantic 
sunny hills that encompass Vienna and the vale of the Danube, 
were very fine. Half way up the tower is the fire-watch of the 
city; and when a fire breaks out night or day signals are imme- 
diately given from this point. At a lofty elevation there is a 
stone seal with an inscription indicating that it is the place from 
which the brave Governor of Vienna, Count Stare mburg, used to 
reconnoitre the Turkish camp during their last siege, and it was 
from here, on the morning of the 12th September, 1683, he first 



Chap. XXXVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 233 

saw the welcome advance of the Polish chivalry and the Christ- 
ian banner of John Sobieski unfurled upon the Kahlenburg. 

Near St. Stephen's is the stump of a tree said to be the last 
of an ancient forest, which is carefully preserved as a city relic, 
and is completely encased with the heads of nails driven into it, 
in obedience to custom, by the apprentices of Vienna upon set- 
ting out on their travels. 

One quiet morning I went with a friend to the service at the 
Church of the Augustines, celebrated for its monument of the 
Archduchess Christina, one of the masterpieces of Canova. It 
was one of the most beautiful and impressive memorials of the 
dead I ever saw. A section of a lofty pyramid is placed against 
the church wall, with an opening to a dark sepulchre within ; 
it is guarded by a sleeping lion and a drooping angel. As 
if slowly and pensively mounting to the gloomy vault, ^re seen 
a group of half a dozen figures with the contrast of the matronly 
form of Virtue bearing the ashes of the dead, supported by two 
angelic girls with torches to illuminate the grave ; then comes a 
beautifully-carved tottering old man to weep over the remains 
of his benefactress. He is led by Benevolence as a female, 
and followed by an exquisite little child holding its hands and 
bowing its head in infantine sorrow. 

But we have not space minutely to dwell upon the crowd 
of curiosities of the Austrian capital. There are the splendid 
picture gallery in the Belvidere Palace, containing a great many 
choice things from the Italian and Flemish schools, and a rich 
collection of the works of Albert Durer — the Ambras museum 
of ancient armor in the lower part of the palace, as a whole 
the finest in the world — the Imperial and City arsenals, with 
captured flags and trophies, Turkish and Christian, innumerable, 
and comprising the blood-stained elk-skin coat worn by Gusta- 
vus Adolphus at his death on the field of Lutzen — the green 
standard of Mahomet captured at the raising of the siege of 
Vienna — the arms of Marlborough, John Sobieski, and Scan- 



234 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIX. 

derberg — the chain with which the Turks obstructed the Dan- 
ube — the head and shirt of the Vizier Kara Mustapha — and a 
collection of firearms and deadly instruments, ancient and mod- 
ern, enough to furnish a couple of armies ; and there, too, are 
the Volksgarten, with Ganova's celebrated statue of Theseus 
killing the Centaurs, and the beautiful Palace-of Schonbrunn, a 
little way out of the city, where Napoleon triumphed and his 
son died. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Crossing the Danube — Olmutz — -Lafayette's Prison — Primitive Bed — Prague 
— Ziska's Gamp — Memorials of Huss— Synagogue— Palace of Wallenstein. 

The Danube has been a famous stream for crossing and 
fighting upon, from the time of Trajan to Napoleon. We 
passed over by steam on a railroad bridge at daybreak ; and 
the only enemy we had to fight was a terrible frost, which 
seemed as if it would shrink us to mummies, and made us 
draw up our limbs like an assemblage of turtles. It froze our 
very curiosity. We passed the battle-field of Wagram with 
scarcely courage to look out into the penetrating air. One 
can easily conceive that in the same latitude as you go inland 
toward Prussia the cold increases. I have tried the winter of 
some of our most northern states and Austria, and I give the 
premium to the frost of Vienna. One finds natural causes for 
the habits of most nations. I came latterly to consider it quite 
proper that the Austrians should have extensive earthen stoves, 
and double windows, and indulge in the luxury of elegantly- 
tanned sheep-skin overcoats, with the wool inside. 

We passed through many little towns and villages with hard 
German names, and traversed a portion of Moravia. In the 



Chap. XXXIX.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 235 

cultivated open country here were more evidences of extensive 
owrnership and the effects of the feudal system than in any other 
country yet visited. Vast unfenced fields were often observed, 
over which game were frisking, without a human dwelling in 
sight. Here and there was seen a village of inferior little 
houses, all of a size, inhabited probably by the tenants of some 
neighboring nobleman. Prince Lichtenstein, one of the richest 
of the Austrian nobility, is said to have an estate extending in 
one direction a distance of two hundred miles. 

The railway upon which we were traveling, like all the oth- 
ers in Austria, belongs to the government. It extends from 
Vienna to Prague, in Bohemia, and it is intended to have a 
branch completed to Austrian Poland. 

Toward evening we arrived at Olmutz. It seemed a sleepy 
sort of place, full of old houses, beer-shops, soldiers, and guard- 
ed with formidable dikes, bastions, and strong walls. The 
Swedes nor any other enemy will hardly take it easily the sec- 
ond time. At the time I made numerous inquiries about the 
prison of La Fayette. At last I was delighted to find an old 
man who, with a rough Bohemian accent, I understood to say, 
had known the illustrious prisoner. It was a mistake — my Ger- 
man had not yet come to maturity, and I had misunderstood 
him. He was like the man who, being asked if he knew Ger- 
man, replied, No — but he had a cousin who played on the 
German flute. My friend had a relative who knew La Fay- 
ette's prison. Sauntering among the fortifications about sun- 
set, I happened to meet a couple of Austrian officers, to 
whom I mentioned the object of my search, and stated that I 
was from America. They politely referred me to a moldering 
bomb-proof pile inside of a very strong fortress a few rods 
distant. It seemed uninhabited, and was roofed above with 
earth. One could easily conceive that in its damp, low cells, 
the sufferings of the illustrious patriot rnust have been very 
severe. 



236 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIX. 



To be on the spot to start by the train at a very early hour, 
I removed in the evening to a respectable-looking, quiet inn, 
at the railroad station, about a mile out of the city. Happening 
to go down into the traveler's room rather late in the evening, 
I encountered a sight very often to be seen at the inns fre- 
quented by the country people in Germany. Men, women, and 
children, of the poorer class, unable to pay for a bed among the 
aristocracy above, were lying in their clothes in groups upon 
straw scattered over the floor. It was a bitter cold night, and 
I could not just then smile at the scene, grotesque as it was, for 
pity. 

Taking the cars bright and early, we whirled all next day 
through a pleasant country, and at sunset came in sight of the 
spires of Prague. We entered the city by crossing the hill 
where Ziska, the blind Hussite chieftain, led out his valiant 
band to a camp fortified by the assistance of the women and 
children of Prague, and from which he descended, against fear- 
ful odds, to defeat the Emperor Sigismund, the betrayer of 
Huss. Except Edinburgh, I saw no city in Europe that ap- 
proached in the grandeur and romance of its position to 
Prague. , 

It is situated in a valley encompassed like an amphitheatre 
with bold eminences, and traversed by the River Moldau ; and 
the numerous turrets, domes, and spires that rise, tier above tier, 
from the water's edge, give it something like Eastern splen- 
dor. Loftier than all the rest, and looking boldly over the city 
from the brink of a precipitous hill, towers the ancient palace 
of the Bohemian kings, the Hradschin. It is larger than the 
Imperial Palace at Vienna. My first impulse upon gazing at 
it from the other side of the town was to climb up the hill 
where it stood. To do this I had to cross the magnificent old 
bridge over the Moldau, upon which stands the famous statue of 
St. John of Nepomuk. The saint, as the story goes, was con- 
fessor to the queen aud having refused to divulge the secrets 



Chap, XXXIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 23/ 

confided to him was secretly drowned by being thrown from 
the bridge into the river. A miraculous light, however, reveal- 
ed the situation of the body to the people, and it was removed, 
and, in later times, transferred to a silver coffin. in the cathedral. 
The latter edifice is upon the same hill, and close to the palace, 
and derives its chief interest from the immensely rich shrine of 
this most popular saint. I never saw such a profusion of pre- 
cious metal as is contained in the several good-sized statues of 
angels and other ornaments about the tomb. They are said to 
contain in all the incredible amount of nearly two tons of silver. 
And this forms only part of the treasures of a shrine now, perhaps, 
the richest in the world. More than eighty thousand pilgrims 
at a time have been known to gather from the surrounding 
countries within late years, to celebrate the great festival of the 
saint in May. The walls of the cathedral must have been orig- 
inally of great strength, as it is said that during the bombard- 
ment of the city by Frederic the Great, in the Seven Years' 
War, it served as a mark for his cannon, and received more 
than a thousand balls. 

Near the palace, also, once resided the Danish philoso- 
pher, Tycho Brahe, who was astronomer royal to the munifi- 
cent Rudolph n. Beneath the palace walls are two obe- 
lisks, marking the spot where the cruel ministers, who coun- 
seled the persecution of the Bohemian Protestants, in a tu- 
mult, were thrown from a window at the height of some 
eighty feet, and preserved by a dunghill ; and thus, in a slight 
affray, began the conflict which ended in the terrible Thirty 
Years' War. 

Few things interested me So much in Prague as its univer- 
sity, distinguished as one of the most ancient in Europe and as 
the scene of the labors of John Huss and Jerome of Prague. 
In the height of its glory it is said to have been frequented by 
the almost incredible number of forty thousand students of sev- 
eral different nations, and some regulations affecting the privi- 



238 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIX. 

leges of the foreigners within its walls, were the means of driv- 
ing away some thirty thousand pupils in a single week, and 
founding the universities of Leipsic, Heidelberg, and Cracow. 
It was through some of the Englishmen frequenting the univer- 
sity that Huss is supposed to have become acquainted with the 
doctrines of WickUffe. 

One of the students, seeing I was a stranger, politely showed 
me into the library. It was crowded with busy, silent readers, 
and a librarian, with a bunch of keys and a black gown, beck- 
oned me to explore with him its rich treasures. There was one 
of the first Bibles ever printed; and there were the celebrated 
theses of John Huss in his own handwriting^. But the most 
interesting relic of all, was a manuscript Hussite liturgy discov- 
ered, as the librarian told me, in destroying one of their ancient 
places of worship. It was found to have been_ executed at the 
cost of the different trade-companies of the city, and was beau- 
tifully illuminated with paintings, the subjects of which were 
taken mostly from the Bible and the life of Huss. One series 
of these illustrations was very remarkable. It consisted of three 
small pictures on the margin of the same page, representing the 
progress of the Reformation. The first represented Wickliffe, 
striking a spark with flint and steel ; the second Huss, blowing 
a little kindling fire ; and the third Luther, holding up a blazing 
torch. Beneath was a picture of Huss intrepidly looking up 
in the agonies of death amid the flames and surrounded by 
fierce-looking persecutors at Constance. 

One afternoon I took a stroll into the Jews' quarter, known, 
in the expressive German, as the Judenstadt. It is one of their 
oldest colonies in Europe, and the persecutions and massacres 
of earlier times, and hereditary prejudices at the present, have 
helped keep them a distinct people. They are now no longer 
locked up in their own streets at eight o'clock in the evening, 
and they are even allowed their own schools and magistrates. 
As in every Jews' quarter, there are the same intelligent, hard 



Ghap. XXXIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 



239 



faces, and there are the same streets of old clothes and small- 
wares, and now and then, as you saunter carelessly along, you 
are perhaps half startled at seeing, leaning archly over some 
little counter, the beautiful form of some bright eyed and dark- 
haired Naomi or Rebecca. The Jews, of Prague boast of 
the most ancient synagogue in Europe, it having stood, as they 
allege, a thousand years. After a diligent search for the sex- 
ton, I gamed admission to the most curious, dark, and din-y 
place of worship I ever beheld. The windows were exceed- 
ingly small; there was some religious scruple against any kind 
of cleansing, and the walls and high roof were blackened by 
tmie and the smoke of the lamps and torches that for days 
together are sometimes burning during their more solemn ser- 
vices. There were the curiously- wrought lamps and furniture 
exhibiting the mysterious number seven, and reminding one of 
the descriptions of the Old Testament, and in the place of the 
altar of a church was a sacred inclosure for the holy books of 
the law. Separated from the body of the synagogue, and com- 
mumcating with it only by apertures through the wall about 
the^ size of an ordinary pane of glass, was the apartment to 
which the females only were admitted. 

Not far away was their spacious ancient burial-gi'ound. I 
wandered a while in this lonely place, brushed away the snow 
from some of the little heaps of stones, brought one by one as 
tributes to departed friends, and gazed vacantly on the curious 
symbols and the Hebrew characters engraved on weatherbeat- 
en, crumbhng gravestones. It is crowded to its utmost capac- 
ity. More than a century has elapsed since the last interment. 
The talkative guide explained the epitaphs on some, pointed 
out the more imposing monuments of their dignitaries and rab- 
bis, and, with something of a look of pride, as I thought, show- 
ed me the grave of a Jewess who, by some freak of Fortune, 
had married a prince, and had preferred in death to sleep with 
her people. 



240 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XXXIX. 

There is a deserted old palace in Prague that with many a 
visitor kindles more thrilling memories than any other. And 
why is this so 1 He has seen splendid halls as lonely, and 
stately marble as defaced, not far away. It is a link to an ideal 
world created by the genius of Schiller. He is told it is the 
palace of Wallenstein, duke of Friedland, the master-hero of 
the great poet and generalissimo of the imperial forces in the 
Thirty Years' War. A hundred houses were demolished and 
a spacious fabric rose. Here, in the possession of a revenue 
of millions, hiS' insatiable and proud spirit, after his first dis- 
grace, amused itself with pomp and splendor like a king. Beau- 
tiful coursers fed from marble ciibs, saloons garnished with 
choice paintings, pages of noble blood crowding round him, and 
an imposing body-guard were the toys with which, in brooding 
over his injury, he pretended to be engrossed. As he probably 
had foreseen, the armies of his ungrateful master had been driven 
back, and the emperor had begun to tremble in his capital at 
the victories of the Protestant confederates. " Fate itself had 
been the Avenger" of the disgraced general ; and the monarch 
was forced to come as a suppliant to his most dreaded sub- 
ject. 

One can scarcely travel in Germany without being forced, as 
it were, to read Schiller; and places otherwise insignificant ac- 
quire strange interest from the witchery of poetry. The sight 
of Wallenstein's palace is enough to revive a whole drama. 
You think of the masterly picture of the struggle in that quak- 
ing breast of pride, revenge, and consuming ambition — the fear- 
ful conflict that terminates in — 

" 'Tis decided ! 
'Tis well ! I have received a sudden cure 
From all the pangs of doubt. With steady stream 
Once more my lifeblood flows ! my soul's secured ! 
In the night only Friedland's stars can beam. 
Lingering irresolute, with fitful fears, 



Chap. XXXIX.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 241 

I drew the sword. 'Twas with an inward strife 
While yet the choice was mine. The murderous knife 
Is hfted to my heart ! Doubt disappears ! 
I fight now for my head and for my life !" 

In fancy you dream over the agony of the mighty chief at Eger 
as friend after friend deserts him and goes over to the base em- 
peror M^hom he has twice saved, and v^^ho is now hiring assas- 
sins to murder him, and, as stung at the aggravated treachery 
of the elder Piccolomini, he exclaims : 

''The adder! the charms of hell o'erpowered me. 
He dwelt within me; to my inmost soul 
Still to and fro he passed, suspected never. 
On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven, 
Did mine eyes seek the enemy whom I 
In my heart's heart had folded !" 

You imagine again the tender last partings — the apparition 
of the astrologer — the mutterings and falterings of the con- 
spirators — and all the fearful accompaniments of the murder 
scene. 



242 LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL, 



CHAPTER XL. 

A Sleigli-Ride— Culm — SaxoBy — Dresden — Gallery — Green Vaults — King 
and Queen — Leipsic— Poniatowski's Tomb— Society of Gustavus Adolpbus 
— Lutzen. 

There are snrely fire and poetry in a sleigh-ride. How 
joyous to fly over snow-fields, behind bounding steeds, to the 
chime of merry bells ! It was bliss unexpected thus to cele- 
brate the last of winter in the vale of the Elbe, There is a 
beautiful song of one from a southern clime, who, after exile in 
the north, welcomed passionately the sight of a solitary palm- 
tree ; and I confess there came thoughts of a far away home as 
we left wheels behind and glided cheerily out of Prague, on our 
snow-path northward. I dreamed of youthful revels with the 
frosty wind on the banks of the Ontario. But a good deal of the 
romance oozed away as at midnight we found ourselves unable 
to cross the river, and were forced to huddle into a little post- 
inn, and v/ait till daylight. After consuming a quantity of cof- 
fee, and beer, and solids in proportion, we sought repose. 
"Beds or straw, Meine Herren^^ demanded our host in thick 
German ; and a respectable minority started up stairs, and the 
majority, too indolent to undress, drew more closely their 
tanned sheep-skin greatcoats and took to straw and the floor 
with our fat and venerable postillion. 

Next day we passed through a fertile country, and the low, 
interminable fortress of Theresienstadt, at the junction of the 
Eger with the Elbe, and in the afternoon we dined at Toplitz, 
the celebrated watering-place. It is now the most fashionable 
in all Germany, being fi:equently visited by crowned heads and ' 
princes. The baths are supplied from seventeen hot springs. 
As in many of the towns in Germany, instead of being distin- 



Chap. XL.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 243 

guisbed by numbeTs, the houses have some dedication, indi- 
cated by a sign; and, to furnish a sufficient variety, the names 
of the reigning sovereigns, the different cities of EurOpe, ancient 
mythology, and nearly every class of earthly objects are ran- 
sacked. The scenery about Toplitz can. not compare in beauty 
with that of Baden-Baden. 

The pass of Nollendorf forms one of the outlets of Bohemia, 
and we traversed the famous battle-field of Culm in going from 
Toplitz to Dresden. It is in a valley shaped like a triangle, 
forming a sort of dent in the mountain ridge that stretches 
along on either side, having the pass at the apex. Here, in 
the campaign of 1813, it will be remembered, Vandamme was 
dispatched by Napoleon with a force of 40,000 men to occupy 
the heights, and close the pass, but with strict orders not to 
descend into the inclosed valley beyond. Only 8000 Russians 
were posted there; and the French general carried away by 
too much ardor, ventured to disobey orders and attack them. 
Osterman and his Russians repelled charge aftei- charge and 
fought like lions against five times their force for hours. At 
last, Colloredo came up with an Austrian re-inforcement from 
the Russian rear, the Prussians, under Kleist, retreating from 
Dresden, came down the pass in the opposite direction, and 
the French, completely hemmed in by mountains, on either 
hand, and an army in front and rear, were caught in the trap, 
and their commander and nearly the whole force were taken 
prisoners. We passed close to the three beautiful monuments 
erected severally by the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian author- 
ities to commemorate the victory. 

We were nearly an hour toiling up the pass ; but the mag- 
nificent view from the summit of the mountain, fruitful plains, 
woods, and winding streams, stretching away in the rear, am- 
ply repaid the labor. At a village, just beyond the Saxon 
frontier, my baggage was examined for the last time on the 
Continent. Saxouy belongs to the ZoUverem, or great custom 



244 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL. 

league which, with the exception of some petty inclosed ter- 
ritories, now extends from the Austrian frontier to the sea. 
Night came on, and we lost the romantic views of Saxon Swit- 
zerland on our way, and, at a late hour, came gingling into 
Dresden. The Saxon capital has been poetically called the 
Grerman Florence. The Elbe is its Arno ; its environs are 
lovely; the climate is temperate ; expenses are moderate; its 
German is pure and musical; the government is liberal; its 
amusements are choice and abundant, and its museums and 
picture gallery are the richest in Germany. Indeed, when the 
chances of war threw the last into the hands of Fredeiic the 
Great and Napoleon, they both hesitated to pillage its treasures. 
Perhaps it was from a little taste acquired too late ; but I saw 
nothing of the kind north of the Alps that gave me so much 
pleasure. It contains a profusion of beauties from the Flemish 
and Italian schools. Your attention is particularly riveted first, 
perhaps, on Holbein's masterpiece, the Family of the Burgo- 
master of Basle adoring the Virgin. After wandering for a 
while through one apartment after another lined with exquisite 
things, till you are half bewildered, you come at last to the 
most precious gems of the collection, the Madonna San Sisto 
of Raphael, and La Notte by Correggio. The former, in Ra- 
phael's best style, represents the Virgin clad in unearthly beau- 
ty, caught up to heaven, while beneath her feet, gazing upward, 
are the faultless figures of a fine old man, a lovely female, and 
two cherub children. The latter depicts the scene of the infant 
Savior in the manger by night ; the shepherds gather, wonder- 
ing; a divine radiance, like phosphorescent light, is reflected 
from the child so brightly, that a female in the group starts 
back, with her hand shading her forehead, while the beautiful 
mother, in the fullness of her love, gazes undazzled. In spite 
of the injuries from cleaning, as you stand at a little distance 
so as to get the general effect, the wonderful management of 
light and shade, and the natural and happy grouping, make 



Chap. XL.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 245 

you feel that it is one of the most impressive pictures you have 
ever seen. 

Before the discovery of America the silver mines of Frey- 
berg made the Saxon princes, at one time, the richest sover- 
eigns of Europe, and they expended a large amount of the 
wealth in the accumulation of rare and valuable curiosities. 
These, in time of war, were preserved in the impregnable for- 
tress of Konigstein, in Saxon Switzerland — almost the only 
fortress in Europe never yet captured. 

The most remarkable of these collections, and, indeed, the 
first in the world of the kind, is contained in the celebrated 
Green Vaults, a series consisting of eight well-guarded apart- 
ments in the basement of one part of the jDalace They are 
filled with a gorgeous collection of gold and silver utensils, ex- 
quisite casts, works in ivory, curiously intricate toys of precious 
material, costly models, and a profusion of diamonds, pearls, and 
gems of every kind — enough to remind one of a scene in the 
Arabian Nights. The model of the Court of the Great Mogul, 
of enameled gold, by Dinglinger, cost eight years' labor, and 
more than fifty thousand dollars ; and a single diamond neck- 
lace, lying amid several others, was said by the guide to be 
worth a million. 

It will be remembered that John Frederic, elector of Sax- 
ony, was the most powerful friend of Luther and the Refor- 
mation. One of his successors, Augustus IL, yielded to the 
temptation of changing his religion, as the price of the crown 
of Poland, and since that time the reigning family have been 
Catholics, though their Saxon subjects have been Lutherans. 
The court church is a sho\^^ edifice on the banks of the Elbe, 
and communicating with the palace by a covered gallery. Its 
music is celebrated all over Germany. On going here one 
beautiful morning, I noticed the royal pew in the gallery oc- 
cupied by a stout, middle-aged man, with a German face, 
dressed in a plain bro"vvn cloak, and a matronly-looking lady 



246 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL. 

by his side. I was afterward told that they were the king and 
queen. ^ 

The King of Saxony was one of those G-erman princes who 
kept their word and gave their subjects a constitution. Since 
1830, the debates of both Houses of the Saxon Parliament have 
been open to the public. I made arrangements to hear them 
the last day of my stay in the city, but, on going to the place, 
from some unexpected cause, there was a recess. 

On one side of Dresden there is a circular rise of ground 
for more than a mile gradually ascending from the city. This 
was the position of the allies in the memorable battle in 1813, 
and the French occupied the town. On asking the way, from 
some one passing, to the spot where Moreau fell, I was point- 
ed to a clump of trees at the summit, a mile distant. A mon- 
ument over part of his remains in the place where his body 
was severed by the fatal cannon-shot, bears the inscription, 
"Moreau the Hero fell here by the side of Alexander, 27th 
August, 1813." I had to break the path some distance through 
deep snow, and I found the place unmarked by footsteps. It 
was an eloquent comment on human glory. 

After amusing myself by watching the crowds of happy- 
faced Germans strolling along the beautiful terraced walk in 
front of the Bruhl Palace, and mingling with the spectators 
in the joyous freaks on the ice of the Elbe, I hurriedly crossed 
the bridge leading from the old to the new town, one after- 
noon, flew by railroad over an undulatory, fertile country, and, 
in three or four hours, was hunting a hotel in the streets of 
Leipsic. 

Except during one of its three great fairs, when it is crowded 
with trading representatives from all Europe, it is rather quiet, 
or, as some would say, a dull town, and the visitor soon dis- 
poses of its few sights. It is the great centre of the book trade 
for all Germany. Six hundred booksellers, from every part 
of the country, sometimes assemble here. I went into one of 



Chap. XL.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 247 

these establishments to make a few purchases, when it hap- 
pened to be necessary to refer to one of their publishing cata- 
logues, and the number of works issued was really enormous. 
A little out of Leipsic is the battle-field -vvhere Gustavus Adol- 
phus utterly defeated the ferocious Tilly. 

On ascending the observatory near the city wall, the keeper 
gave me a plan, and pointed out the localities of the great battle 
which ended in the disastrous defeat of Napoleon. The town 
is in the centre of a level plain. After three days of desperate 
fighting, in which some three hundred and sixty thousand men, 
of several different nations, were engaged, the allies encircled 
the city and the French as their prey ; and the latter only made 
good their retreat through the heroic bravery of Poniatowski 
and Macdonald, in defending the rear, and the premature blow- 
ing up of the bridge over the Elster, by which they and twenty- 
five thousand French were surrounded and cut off from their 
friends. The gallant Polish general, already twice wounded 
and faint with the loss of blood, attempting to swim his jaded 
borse across the narrow stream, got entangled amid the dead 
and dying that choked the river, and was drowned. A simple 
monument was erected on the bank by the Polish soldiers to 
their brave commander on the spot after the battle. In search- 
ing for this, I was forced to inquire my way from a gentle- 
manly-looking person in the street. He afforded a happy 
example of unaffected generous kindness extended to perfect 
strangers in Germany. In spite of ray remonstrances, he insisted 
on giving himself the trouble of going with me to Poniatowski's 
tomb, and afterward showed me many curiosities in his ware- 
house in the city, and finally introduced me to a brother of my 
own profession who invited me to dinner, showed me through 
the famous university and other institutions, and gave me so 
many introductions, without any endorsement but the ordinary 
civilities of a stranger, tbat,, in a few hours, I had a delightful 
cirQle of acquaintances. 



248 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XL. 

Happening to have occasion to call upon one of the profes- 
sors, I was pleasantly detained with the history of the formation 
of one of the most useful missionary societies now in Germany. 
More than two centuries had elapsed since, when all seemed 
lost, the Christian hero, Gustavus Adolphus, landed on the 
shore of the Baltic, and ktielt on the sand in sight of his army 
to pray for Heaven's blessing on their efforts to deliver desolate 
Protestant Germany. No memorials remained of him but the 
names of his victories — and the initials carved on the solitary 
rock by which he fell on the field of Lutzen. The " Stone of the 
Swede" had been indeed immortalized in story and song, and 
visited annually in procession by the children of those whose 
liberties and faith he had died in defending ;' but, at the return 
of the two hundredth anniversary of this dearly-bought victory, 
in 1832, they wished to do more. Thousands assembled on 
that lonely plain to erect a beautiful structure over the "great 
stone" itself, and a voice in the crowd — it came from the ven- 
erable professor himself— said " Let us erect a spiritual monu- 
ment — let us found an institution to be called after his name, 
to aid the descendants of those he fought to rescue, now in 
Catholic countries" — and the result was the formation of the 
"Society of Gustavus Adolphus." Many thousand dollars have 
since been raised annually by its means in the north of Germany 
and Sweden, to send teachers and pastors to the poorer Protes- 
tant flocks in Hungary, Bohemia, and Catholic Germany. Ber- 
nadotte, king of Sweden, became one of its patrons. I was so 
stirred by the good man's story, that, at his suggestion, I set off 
instantly for Lutzen, and being unable in my haste to find a con- 
veyance, I managed to get over the fifteen miles of solitary 
road in a few hours on foot, and arrived at the " Swede's Stone" 
late in the afternoon. The rock itself, at the period mentioned, 
was covered with a beautiful cast-iron canopy. It is one of 
those granite boulders brought by some mysterious agency from 
the mountains of Scandinavia, and scattered over the immense 



Chap. XLL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 249 

plain south of the Baltic. The field is nearly a dead level. It 
will be remembered, the battle was one of the most obstinately 
contested in history. Wallenstein escaped by a miracle, amid 
showers of balls ; Count Piccolomini had seven horses killed 
under him, and was borne off desperately wounded ; the brave 
Pappenheim was killed in the hottest conflict, and the Swedish 
king fell pierced by two balls ; and lying on the field were two 
entire regiments in yellow and blue uniforms, who marked in 
death the order in which they were posted. The cavalry 
fought long for the corpse of their idolized monarch, and at 
last carried it off in triumph. Darkness parted the combat- 
ants, and the only trophies with which the Protestants could 
console themselves for the loss of their commander were the 
field and the cannon of the broken enemy. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Affair of the Heart— Halle— Theological Lecture— Magdeburg— Witten- 
burg— German Manners— Luther's Grave— His furnished Sitting-Room, 

Possibly I owed my own peaceable escape fi'om the battle- 
field of Lutzen to the principle that the least kindness to others 
commonly begets kindness. There were scarcely more than 
half a dozen houses near the road all the way from Leipsic,B,nd 
I stopped at the only dwelling near the monument to get some 
refreshment. I happen to be a great admirer of those inno- 
cent creatures that painters convert into angels by adding 
wings, or, in other words, of pretty children. The Germans, 
like the French, change their style of address in speaking to 
children, or very near relatives, to the second person singular, 
corresponding to the Quaker form ; and, while waiting for what 



250 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLI. 

I had ordered, I amused myself, as a learner, in trying to con- 
jugate in this way a few amiable verbs, and speculating in the 
affections of a sweet girl, of four or five years of age, by means 
of small coin. She coyly fluttered around me a while, and then 
was fondly mine. Looking up, I saw the busy mother's eye 
kindle, and at length she brought me an additional supply of 
good things for which I had not bargained, and for which she 
promptly refused payment. Presently, the host and hostess 
called me aside, and muttered in a low tone that the men 
drinking in an adjoining apartment, who had eyed me so 
searchingly, were bad people, and gave me to understand, that 
if I wished to reach Leipsic that night, I had better set off be- 
fore it grew dark and keep a look-out as I might possibly be 
waylaid. I coolly showed them the end of a noisy weapon in 
my pocket, carried to frighten traveling visitors, and requested 
them to report the matter to their guests, and hint that I was 
not amiable on the road. One of them followed distantly in 
the rear, some time after dark, and then vanished. I found 
exceptions to the rule of perfect honesty so very rare in the 
interior of G-ermany, that with such slight evidence I was, after 
all, inclined to believe my friends mistaken in their suspicions. 
Returning to Leipsic, next day I whirled, in an hour or two 
by railroad, across the frontier of Prussia to Halle. To punish 
the Saxons for adhering so long to Napoleon, the Congress of 
Vienna gave a large slice of their former possessions to Prussia. 
I had previously met one of the professors of the University of 
Halle, and being directed to find him there, I seated myself 
quietly in the rear of his class in the lecture-room. He was 
one of the first Hebrew scholars of the age. It was a theologi- 
cal lesson; a large room fall of students, seated behind desks, 
with Bibles and paper before them, were rapidly taking notes, 
and attending closely to the professor's reading of the original. 
Subsequently I was present in his library by invitation, at the 
hour set apart by this worthy teacher for friendly conversation 



Chap. XLL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 251 



witk his pupils, and there was something touching in their free, 
affectionate intercourse. The pleasure was only equaled by 
that of a delightful evening in the professor's family. 

Over the same monotonous, fruitful pkin, I took a turn west- 
ward, by railway, to Magdeburg. There was nothing to in- 
terest me about that level fortress-town l^ut one fearful chapter 
in its story. Yet, when the chance offered, I could not resist 
a morbid desire to visit the ground on which the tragedy was 
acted, the account of which, in earlier days, had caused so 
deep a shudder. Perhaps even those to whom they may be 
familiar will excuse a few passages descriptive of the last 
scenes of the memorable siege from the '' Thirty Years' War" 
of Schiller. 

**Here commenced a scene of horrors for which history has 
no language- — poetry no pencil. Neither innocent childhood 
nor helpless old age ; neither youth, sex, rank, nor beauty could 
disarm the fury of the conquerors. Wives were abused in the 
arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of their parents. 
No situation, however obscure or however sacred, escaped the 
rapacity of the enemy. In a single church fifty-three women 
were found beheaded. The Croats amused themselves with 
throwing children into the flames; Pappenheim's Walloons 
with stabbing infants at the mother's breast. These horrors 
lasted with unabated fury till at last the smoke and flames 
proved a check to the plunderers. To augment the confusion, 
and to divert the resistance of the inhabitants, the Imperialists 
had, in the commencement of the assault fired the town in 
several places. The wind rising, rapidly spread the flames till 
the blaze became universal. Fearful, indeed, was the tumult 
amid clouds of smoke, heaps of dead bodies, the clash of 
swords, the crash of falling houses, and streams of blood. 
The atmosphere glowed, and the intolerable heat forced even 
the murderers to take refuge in their camp. In less than 
twelve hours, this strong, populous, and flourishing city, one of 



252 LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLl, 

the finest in Germany, was reduced to ashes, with the excep- 
tion of two churches and afew houses, ' Tilly himself appear 
ed in the_town after the streets had been cleared of ashes and 
dead bodies. Hon'ible andr revolting to humanity was the 
scene that presented itself. The living were crawling from 
under the dead ; children wandering about with heartrending 
cries calling for their parents; and infants still sucking the 
breasts of their lifeless mothers. More than 6000 bodies were 
thrown into the Elbe to clear the streets ; a much greater num- 
ber had been consumed by the flames. The next day the 
whole number of the slain was reckoned at not less than 
30,000. A solemn mass was performed in the cathedral, and 
Te Deum sung amid the discharge of artillery. The Imperial 
general rode through the streets that he might be able as an 
eyewitness to inform his master that no such conquest had 
been made since the destruction of Troy and Jerusalem." 

I went to the vast old cathedral, plodded about the fortifica- 
tions a while, and then amused myself with looking on at the 
exercise of the Prussian troops. Taking the cars I returned 
by the same route as far as Gnadau, a Moravian village. It 
is in size the second settlement possessed by this interesting 
religious community, Herrnhut being the first. There was noth- 
ing particular about its situation in the midst of a plain ; but 
the extreme quiet, neatness, and air of comfort about the place 
rendered it the most attractive village 1 saw in Germany. At 
the recommendation of a mutual friend in Halle, I called on 
the minister, and was hospitably entertained and shown through 
their educational establishment. The chapel, parsonage, and 
seminary were in a connected series of buildings. In the first, 
the seats were aiTanged so that the males and females sat on 
opposite sides ; and there was an organ. Indeed, except in 
their fondness for music, there was a marked resemblance in 
the sedate air and exceedingly neat, plain appearance to the 
members of the Society of Friends. The ladies here have, by 



Chap. XLI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 253 

custom, a very convenient way of, v^^liat some v^^ould call, hang- 
ing out their colors. The dresses of the smaller girls are orna- 
mented with little unostentatious ribbons of deep red ; the un- 
married females, pink ; the man-ied, blue; and the widows, gray 
or white. I noticed that in the female school that almost every 
apartment was furnished with a piano. The girls were much, 
occupied with needlework, the proceeds of which, as I under- 
stood, went to support the extensive missions of this extraordi- 
nary people. The settlement at Gnadau is next to that of 
Herrnhut in size, and it owns and tills only what would make 
but a moderate gentleman's estate; and yet these two villages 
send missionaries to almost every clime, and they now fos- 
ter upward of forty establishments in different parts of the 

world. 

Leaving Gnadau, I hurried back to Cothen, the little, inter- 
esting capital of the petty principality of Anhalt Cothen, and 
joining again the great northen railroad in the evening, reached 
Wittenburg, the cradle of the Reformation, and, as it is some- 
times styled, the Mecca of Protestantism. 

I was greatly pleased with my treatment at the inn. In- 
deed, except at the very fashionable hotels, where one sees 
less of the manners of the people, the traveler is often receiv- 
ed more as if he were a guest sharing the hospitalities of a 
kind, domestic circle than otherwise. If he happens to speak 
a little of their language and is sociable, there springs up im- 
mediately a wonderful kindness of manner toward him. Per- 
haps I was more fortunate, from being from America, where 
are so many of their friends and relations. Many a pleasant 
hour have I spent answering innocent famihar questions with 
a hearth circle gathered around me as if I were one of their 

number. 

I do not believe there is any country in Europe where the 
stranger, who can converse with the people, finds more pleasure 
from°this source, and feels more delightfully at home, than in 



254 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLI. 

Germany. He finds, in addition to hearty kindness, remarka- 
ble honesty. The inns are commonly quite moderate in their 
charges, milike the rest of the Continent, and I scarcely remem- 
ber an instance of being overcharged as a foreigner. Then, 
too, if their compliments are profuse, there is great apparent sin- 
cerity. When you are once accustomed to them, how pleasant 
are the last kind look and the " Schlafen sie woliV (May you 
sleep well) of the domestic who lights you to bed ! Then there 
are little compliments for any emergency. Before dinner, your 
neighbor wishes you " A good appetite," and afterward " A 
good digestion." Often does the polite German repeat his ever- 
lasting " I beg you," or his parting ** I commend myself," " I 
have the honor," " May you live well," and the like. A Ger- 
man bow, too, is the real article, and implies a graceful curve 
of the body, with the head uncovered, and not a sort of au- 
tomaton affair, like a shght vibration of a wooden head with a 
spring. 

My kind host procured me a guide, and I set off to visit the 
old church where Luther preached, and to the door of which 
he affixed his celebrated theses against indulgences. Beneath 
a tablet of bronze in-the floor sleep the remains of Luther, and 
by his side lie those of his faithful friend, the gentle Melanc- 
thon., A little nearer the altar were the tombs of Luther's pow- 
erful friends, Frederic the Wise and John the Steadfast, elect- 
ors of Saxony. Till the guide was quite wearied, I returned 
again and again to ponder over the grave of the mighty reform- 
er. From my childhood he had seemed among the greatest of 
Christian heroes. His whole history whirled through the brain. 
The monk struggling for light in the dark cloister — the professor 
thundering to crowds of students fi'om his chair — and, most ma- 
jestic of all, the confronting of princes and emperors at the Diet 
of Worms. 

In the market-place, not far away, is a beautiful statue of 
Luther in bronze, with his celebrated sentiment in German, 



Chap. XLI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 255; 

" If it be the word of Grod, it will endure ; if it be man's work, 
it will perish." And on the other side is the first line of the fa- 
mous hymn commencing with 

" Our God is a strong fortress." 

Near the other end of the town we came to a part of the an- 
cient university buildings, and found ourselves suddenly among 
the children of Luther's charity-school. At last we entered the 
sitting-room of the great reformer, with the furniture just as he 
had left it at his death. There were the chairs in which sat he 
and the gentle Catherine; some of her ornamental work; the 
table on which he wrote; the jug from which he drank, and a 
pile of his manuscript music. 

From Luther's house we went outside the walls to an oak^ 
tree. It was planted upon the very spot where the great re- 
former threw away the scabbard, in the height of the contest, 
by burning, in the sight of the professors and students of the 
university, the pope's bull of excommunication. 

From Wittenburg we took the cars northward, over the same 
level country, and one quiet morning we found ourselves sud- 
denly in the midst of the din and bustle of the Prussian cap- 
ital. 



256 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIT. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Berlin — Brandenburg Thor — Unter den Linden — Chamber of Art — King — 
Government — Prussian System of Education — Army. 

Berlin, like Prussia, is itself a wonder. You would no more 
have expected to find so stately a city in the midst of such a 
flat, barren plain, without knowing it beforehand, than of old a 
camel in the desert would have prophesied of Palmyra. 

It has not a single natural advantage except a contemptible 
Bluggish stream, the Spree, connected by canals with the Oder 
and the Baltic in one direction, and the Elbe and the German 
Ocean in another. The streets are such a perfectly dead level 
that they are very badly drained, and for want of stone in the 
neighborhood the houses are all of brick. Yet with these dis- 
advantages, within a century and a half its population has in- 
creased tenfold, and it has risen to be one of the finest capitals 
in Europe. 

Frederic the Great having wrested Silesia from Maria The- 
resa, taken a large slice from Poland, and in various ways add- 
ed to his patrimony half a kingdom, determined to have a cor- 
responding seat of government. Wide streets were projected, 
large spaces inclosed and filled with houses, and at the bid- 
ding of a genius fifuitful in the cabinet as the field, after long 
desolating wars, magnificent palaces and public edifices rose as 
by magic. 

The way to get the finest impression of Berlin is to take a 
tour through the Tkiergarten, an extensive pleasure-ground 
outside, like the Champs Elysees at Paris, and fi'om this to 
enter the city by the Brandenburg Gate. It is the most mag- 
nificent portal in Europe, being a copy on a colossal scale of 



Chap. XLTI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 



257 



the Propylaeum at Athens. Napoleon carried away the car of 
Victory and the horses on the top, to be returned with the ad- 
ditional decorations of an eagle and a cross, after the battle of 
Waterloo. Passing beneath the arch of this beautiful en- 
trance, you find yom-self in the TJnter den Linden, a wide street 
scarcely rivaled for splendor, planted with rows of lime- 
trees for a shady walk in the centre, with carriage roads on 
each side, lined with the most stately buildings in the city, while 
in the distance, as they stand clustered round the other ex- 
tremity, you catch glimpses of the University, Arsenal, Italian 
Opera, Guard House, Academy of Fine Arts, Museum, Cathe- 
dral, and lastly, the immense Royal Palace. 

The stranger finds quite a treat in visiting the Chamber of 
Art in one part of the palace, containing a museum of curiosi- 
ties of no common interest. In the historical collection is a 
rare assoi-tment of authentic memorials. Among these are the 
orders and decorations presented to Napoleon by different na- 
tions, and his hat, captured by the Prussians in his carriage at 
Waterloo ; a royal collection of filthy tobacco pipes ; the gaudy 
white uniform of Murat ; a cap worn in battle by the great 
Elector; Luther's large beer jug; a death-cast of the face of 
the beautiful Queen Louisa, and another of General Moreau ; 
the model of a windmill made by Peter the Great while work- 
ing as a ship-carpenter in Holland ; a camp-chair of Gustavus 
Adolphus, and two cannon-balls fired by opposite parties at the 
siege of Magdeburg, and flattened by meeting in the air. 

But the most curious of these refics are those of Frederic the 
Great. There is a wax figure of him in the shabby and soiled 
uniform he wore on the day of his death ; his filthy and patched 
pocket handkerchief; and his books and favorite flute, the so- 
lace of his leisure hours. 

On making my exit from this place into the palace yard one 
morning, I noticed the royal carriage drive up to the principal 
entrance and wait for the king, and in company with half a 



258 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLII. 

dozen others pressed near. Presently a tall, middle-aged per- 
sonage, with a red face, dressed in a plain blue cloak, came 
bustling down the steps, and those present saluted him. He 
replied by touching his hat, and bowing in the polite Grerman 
style. It was the king. He had just before granted the con- 
stitution which his father had promised his people in return for 
assisting to conquer Napoleon, and which had been so long de- 
ferred. The few persons present seemed quite enthusiastic in 
their greetings. A few weeks after, the newly constituted rep- 
resentatives of the people were to meet in the Diet or Parlia- 
ment of Prussia. 

From what I could learn, the king was esteemed to be 
exemplary in religious matters, and to sustain a fair private 
character. It was thought that the fears of the conserva- 
tive party, together with the influence of Austria and Russia, 
had long delayed those liberal concessions w^hich enlightened 
public opinion had at last wrested. Since the time of Frederic 
the Great the government, though strictly monarchical and ar- 
bitrary in principle, has been paternal and kind in practice. 

But the careful system of national instruction, begun by that 
wise prince, encouraged by his successors, and essentially ma- 
tured nearly thirty years since, naturally prepared the people 
for a large share of political liberty. 

As the Prussian system of education is perhaps the most per^ 
feet in the world, and as it has latterly excited an interest in 
our own country, perhaps a slight sketch of it may not be 
amiss. 

One of the most important members of the king's cabinet is 
the minister of public instruction. To this functionary, assisted 
by twelve councillors eminent for their learning, is intrusted the 
supervision of all the educational interests of the kingdom. 

Each of the ten provinces of Prussia, again, has a secondary 
organization on a smaller scale and acting under the first, con- 
sisting of a head president [Oberj)rdsident) and a school-board. 



Chap. XLIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 259 

In almost every province is a university, which comrnuni-, 
cates with the minister of pubhc instruction through a royal 
commissary. Every province, again, is divided into regencies, 
circles, and parishes ; and corresponding with these and descend- 
ing in the scale, are various inspectors, councillors, and others, 
down to the parish Schulv or stand, or school committee, mostly 
elective, who watch over and regulate the details of each indi- 
vidual school. 

Both the Protestant and Catholic clergy, according to the 
character of the school,, by virtue of their offices, are made to 
take an important share in its direction. 

There are three principal classes of schools. The first or 
primary school gives instruction in those elementary branches 
which by the laws of Prussia are deemed necessary to the poor- 
est citizen, embracing religious instruction, reading, writing, 
arithmetic, elementary geometry and physics, geogi^aphy, Ger- 
man grammar, history, agriculture, gymnastics, and singing. 

The second class are the citizen-schools, as they are termed, 
a higher grade for the children of thednhabitants of small towns 
and villages, who may wish for a better education than is given 
in the primary schools, and add to the branches taught in these, 
Latin, and one or more modern languages, mathematics, natural 
history, and a higher style of singing. 

The gymnasia form the third class. These are in fact minor 
colleges or seminaries, scattered over the country, in which 
very respectable classical and mathematical courses are given, 
preparatory to entering the universities or the learned profes- 
sions. 

No private schools can exist without license and inspection 
by the local school authorities. 

The whole educational interests of the country are thus 
merged into one admirable and harinonious system. 

To insure a constant supply of superior teachers, their sal- 
aries have been gradually raised, so as to make their situation 



260 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLII. 

quite desirable, and excellent normal schools for their special 
training have been established in every district. 

The course of instruction, preparatory to teaching is very 
thorough, and usually lasts three years ; the previous exami- 
nation of the candidates as to morals, health, musical attain- 
ments, and the like, is quite strict; a model school is usually 
placed under their care for practice ; they must become good 
performers on the organ, piano, and violin ; at the end of the 
time those v^ho are classed, after rigid examination, as "excel- 
lent" get diplomas and permanent situations as teachers, while 
those marked "good" or "passable" are employed for a time 
on probation. Teachers frequently return for further improve- 
ment. - 

Each graduate of a normal school agrees to hold him- 
self in readiness to fill the place of teacher when called upon 
by the authorities, at any time within three years after leaving, 
or to refund the full expenses of his normal education. 

The installation of a school teacher is made an imposing 
ceremony, and he pledges himself to faithfully discharge his 
duties, by taking a solemn oath. It is regarded, indeed, as a 
sacred calling, and he is forbidden to engage in any other pur- 
suit which may lessen the dignity or efficiency of his office. 
For any misconduct he is subject to careful trial before suitable 
judges, and disgrace or dismissal. He is commonly married, 
and a house is as regularly furnished him as the minister. As 
a favored character he is granted peculiar privileges, and is 
exempt from certain burdens. "When disabled by sickness or 
old age he has a retiring allowance, and his widow and orphans 
are aided after his death. 

The provision by the state for the general support of educa- 
tion is exceedingly liberal. In addition to the school-rate levied 
upon each householder in every parish in the country, to sup- 
port its own schools, large suras are annually expended for 
public instruction by the government. 



Chap. XLII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. ' 261 

The poorer localities are aided ; books, the necessary imple- 
ments, and a garden, are usually furnished to each school ; and 
when the parents are too indigent to send their children decent- 
ly clad, they are sometimes provided with clothing at the pub- 
lic expense. _ 

But the most curious feature in the system is the rigid ex- 
actness with which the goverment secures the participation of 
its bounty. It is actually ma<le a crime for any Prussian sub- 
ject to neglect the education of his child. Nor is this reg- 
ulation a dead letter, but it is carefully enforced. Registers 
are kept of all the children of the school age, or that from 
seven to fourteen in each parish, and these are compared with 
the school lists. Parents or guardians wishing to educate 
their children by private tuition receive special permission from 
the local school committee ; but all others, not represented in 
the school by their children, must send a certificate from a 
physician or clergyman of the disability of their children, from 
ill health, or be summoned before the school authorities. For 
the neglect of what the Prussian law terms the duty of 
" Christian- and conscientious parents toward their children," in 
not sending them to school, the former are at first severely 
reprimanded ; then, if refractory, they are fined and deprived of 
any offices in the church or school, and of poor-relief; and, 
finally, if necessary, they are sentenced to imprisonment or 
hard labor; and, as unworthy of the charge of their children, 
guardians are appointed to attend to the education of the 
latter. 

In Prussia there are two great obligations generally recog- 
nized as due to the state from every good citizen, and which, 
in phrases particularly expressive in German, are termed the 
" schoolduty" and the military "service duty." Let us glance 
at the latter: . 

.As you walk through Berlin, you are struck with the num- 
ber and fine appearance of the soldiers. The whole male pop- 



262 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLII. 

ulation have a military gait. Reviews and parades seem, as 
they really are, the most popular exhibitions. One of the first 
steps of Frederic the Great, after the conclusion of the Seven 
Years' War, v^^as carefully to organize a very large peace 
establishment. ^ 

The territory of Prussia is disjointed, possesses few natural 
barriers, and is surrounded by powerful nations, capable of be- 
coming dangerous neighbors ; and his successors have felt the 
necessity, however great the burden, of making her the most 
military nation in Europe. 

Every able-bodied male subject, from the peasant to the 
prince, is obliged to sei've in the regiments of the line, or the 
provincial army or Landwelir, between the ages of twenty and 
thirty-two, for three years. After this service these form a body 
of reserve, or the second band of the Landwelir, until the age 
of thirty-nine years. These two bands of highly-disciplined 
militia, with the troops of the line, constitute, in any emergency, 
an army of upward of half a million of soldiers. In addition to 
this, in case of invasion, the Landsturm^ or all those between 
seventeen and twenty and thirty-nine and fifty years, are lia- 
ble to serve. 

Yet, strange as it may seem, from its peculiar organization, 
so large a standing-army has been a check to arbitrary power. 
It is but a body of armed citizens. Their rights and feelings 
are always respected, and they are not subject to the same de- 
grading punishments as elsewhere. Indeed, they are the most 
independent and intelligent troops in Europe, and they sympa- 
thize in every thing with the great mass of the people. No 
monarch or minister dares tyrannize over such a nation. Per- 
haps this curious feature is one of the secret causes of the pa- 
ternal and conciliatory policy of the government. If the citi- 
zeias are all soldiers the soldiers are all citizens. 



Chap. XLIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 263 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

Grateful Wishes — Misty Recollections— Mecklenburg-^Korner— Hamburg-— 
Hull — Route to London. 

Blessings be on him who invented railroads. Next to 
balloon-flying, or some other means in which I am equally 
inexperienced, they seem to afford the most comfortable way 
of traveling in cold weather. Posting over the rough ground 
is no comparison. 

It is true, that, except the select few within the car, you see 
little of the people, and your recollections of the country are 
something like Milton's description of the voyage of Satan to 
Earth — rather misty. But who ever tasted happiness in this 
world that had not its drawback 1 And the calm pleasure of 
sitting like a philosopher, and without the motion of a hand or 
the quiver of a wing, flying over the beautiful earth, like a 
spirit, is necessarily fleeting ; and the impressions of the scenes 
through w^hich you pass are easily effaced. 

The railroad from Berhn to the mouth of the Elbe had been 
finished but a few days previous, and instead of a jolting, tedious 
ride over a weary level for nearly two hundred miles, I found my- 
self, on a fine brisk morning, sitting quietly in a car, waiting for 
the last whistle of the conductor, and expecting to sup in Ham- 
burg. 

Our route lay through the flat territory of the principality of 
Mecklenburg Schwerin, famous for its geese, horses, and other 
animals, the more fleet from having never to go up hill. It is a 
part of that vast plain, here less barren, that skirts for hundreds 
of miles the southern shore of the Baltic, and extends into Russia. 



264 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIII. 

Scattered over tbis every where are numerous granite boulders 
of various sizes, brought apparently by some violent cause from 
a distant mountain chain. They have rather puzzled geol- 
ogists. Some have fancied they were floated there upon ice- 
bergs, loosened and thawed at the time of the Flood ; and others 
have thought that the Baltic once covered all this plain, and 
that rocks from the mountains of Scandinavia, upon flakes of ice, 
might have been ferried over and deposited. 

We passed near, the place where the poet Korner, the Ger- 
man Tyrtaeus, fell in rallying his countrymen against the French, 
but a few hours after composing the celebrated " Sword Song," 
and was buried by his companions in arms, beneath a spreading 
oak. 

Just at sunset we came to the pleasant environs of Hamburg, 
and in half an hour, with a cheerful party of Germans, I was 
duly established at an hotel. 

Next day I had a delightful ramble though this old-fashioned 
commercial city. It will be remembered it was anciently a 
leading member of the powerful confederacy of the Hanse 
Towns. In some parts the houses have a very antiquated, odd 
appearance, as though they had stood for centuries. But these 
are quite eclipsed by the beautiful edifices rising from the ashes 
of the late fire. Its havoc must have been immense, as, with all 
the resources of the^ first seaport of Germany, a large space is 
still desolate. 

The city is built at the junction of a small river, the Alster, 
with the Elbe; and the former stream is dammed so as to form 
an extensive basin, around which is a beautiful promenade, 
termed, in the expressive German, the "Maiden's Walk." 

Happening to be out just after sunrise, I could not help no- 
ticing the dressy appearance of the servant girls out making 
their purchases for the day. It is customary for them not to 
appear in the streets except in the gayest attire, and it is rather 
amusing to see their provision baskets, shaped like little coflfins. 



Chap. XLIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 265 

nicely enveloped in the folds of a splendid shawl, and borne by 
hands garnished with kid gloves. 

But the most curious costume you meet in the streets is that 
of the female peasants from a settlement in the neighborhood, 
supposed to have been an ancient Dutch colony. Their dresses 
are queer as the most heathenish robes of savage people in 
a child's picture book, and their hats look as if the original idea 
had been taken from the top of a mushroom or the inverted 
form of certain dishes in a dairy. 

When the water in the Elbe is low, the large London steam- 
ers are sometimes detained some eighty miles below at the 
mouth of the river, and this being strongly threatened at the 
time of our visit, a party of us embarked on board a smaller 
English steamer for Hull. Large quantities of floating ice im- 
peded our progress, till at last we caught a glimpse of the port 
of Cuxhaven, and soon, after were buffeting a rough sea in the 
German Ocean. 

The voyage usually varies in length with the weather. At 
day-break of the third day we entered the mouth of the 
Humber. We had left winter in Germany to find decided 
spring in England. It was the beginning of March and yet it 
seemed like an April day. Soon after, the sun rose, and we land- 
ed in Hull. The hum of one's mother-tongue seemed delight- 
fully welcome. It was a lovely Sabbath morning; and the still- 
ness of the streets, the closing of all the shops, the ringing of the 
bells soon after, and the cheerful and yet sedate groups bending 
their way at a given hour to the churches, all contrasting with 
the dissipation and gayety of the day upon the Continent, 
strongly reminded me of home. 

Next day I took an early stroll through the town. The sit- 
uation of Hull at the head of a fine estuary, and its numerous 
communications with the interior, make it the first seaport of 
the north of England, and its docks, filled with shipping, cover- 
ing a dozen acres or more, attest the activity of its commerce. 



266 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIII. 

Of late its trade in the Greenland whale-fishery has considei'- 
ably declined. 

Soon after, in company with a fellow-passenger, a kind, in- 
telligent German, who needed the assistance of an interpreter 
and guide, a party of three of us set out by railway for the 
south. The rich, finished aspect of the country, neatly hedged 
and ditched every where, the broad, sleek-looking cattle and 
sheep grazing in the fields, and the neat cottages and stately 
old mansions, scattered thickly over the country, quite captiva- 
ted our German friend. Passing through the pleasant towns 
of Selby and E.otherham, v^e came to Chesterfield. The spire 
of one of its churches has a very singular appearance, looking 
as if it had been built of some yielding mateiial, and been twisted 
round two or three times, and then pulled slightly to the west- 
ward. From this we pushed on to the pleasant ancient cities 
of Derby and Leicester, and joined the great Northwestern or 
Liverpool line at Rugby. 

Anxious to get on, from pressing engagements, we took the 
first upward train, and in the dusk of the evening the houses 
and the smoke began to thicken, the conductors to search for 
some suspicious character on board, and we soon after were 
liberated at the immense station in Euston Square. 

By nine in the evening I was in a distant part of London, 
enjoying the society of delightful friends. 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 267 



CHAPTER XLIV.* 

Glimpses of London. 

Do not ask me, gentle reader, for a regular description of 
huge London. I am weary, and so perhaps are you. No; you 
would frighten me by calling for it now. Besides, the story is so 
very old. Yet it is too important a place upon our planet to be 
entirely passed over. We will then loiter about it easily, care- 
lessly, if you will. You shall, in thought, be my traveling com- 
panion. We may not be believers in mesmerism, but we will 
again borrow one of its figures; you shall, in imagination, be 
in a state of intellectual clairvoyance. Fancy the spell is on 
you. There ! are you ready 1 

Here we are over a stream about half as wide as the East 
River opposite Fulton Ferry, standing in the middle of Black- 
friars' bridge. It is one of the most central positions to get a 
general idea of London. Just over there, a little to the north- 
east, the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral looms up proudly in the 
smoke. What a pity the architect did not clear away the 
houses from it down to the river ! 

Westward, beyond Waterloo bridge and just north of the 
Suspension, we see a single column towering far above the 
houses, surmounted by a colossal statue of Nelson. Opposite this 
point the river disappears by taking a turn to the south. On the 
north bank, we notice the Temple Gardens, the only open spot 
on the Thames in sight, where the sages of the law air them- 
selves and cool their learned heads. That grim-looking palace 
beyond is Somerset House. There is nothing notable in sight 
bordering the shore of the smaller and quieter part of the city 
south of the river, but smoky breweries, shot-towers, glass- 



268 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIV. 

houses, and the hke. Eastward and below us are Southwark 
and London bridges, and below the latter, again, are crowds of 
large shipping. 

Passing constantly over the bridge where we are standing 
r are a motley throng ; vehicles of every kind ; coalmen, with 
broad canvass hats, blackened faces, and linen frocks dyed 
with soot, and driving heavily-laden wagons, with broad tires, 
drawn by elephant horses in single file ; stout servant girls ; 
spruce clerks ; splendid coaches, with footmen outside ; old- 
clothes-raen; red-faced market-women ; portly gentlemen, with 
large noses and whiskers ; children of all sizes ; tall, civil po- 
f licemen — the best in the world — with glazed crowns to their 
hats, and blue coats ornamented with white numbers; stately 
women, with fine complexions ; foreigners, with moustaches, 
staring at the crowd like ourselves ; and omnibuses, with the 
figure for sixpence and a noisy man behind. We begin to 
^ form an idea of the currents and eddies of human beings ever 
rushing through the streets of this vast capital. Detachments 
of the multitude on foot wheel round at the ends of the bridge, 
and embark from the different stairs on board the little iron 
steamers, like toy boats, plying incessantly on the Thames, 
and crowded worse than the streets. What curious river-craft 
^ of all sorts and sizes, are floating constantly backward and for- 
ward beneath 1 

We will take a walk for a quarter of a mile down to Fleet 
street and up Ludgate Hill. Here we are right in front of St. 
Paul's. The little space we see, about the width of a roomy 
street, around it, is St. Paul's Churchyard. It is shaped, to use 
an undertaker's figure, like half a cofiin, and in it St. Paul's 
itself is half-buried. We will not ransack that beautiful solemn 
temple, for you have heard all about it before, but we will 
merely stroll about in it a little while. The door of the side 
entrance opens and we pay our trifling toll. We look upward 
fi'om the centre, and the effect is singularly impressive. But 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 269 



no one but an architect can well describe or remember details 
of columns, arches, aisles, naves, choirsj domes, and the like. 
We think, as all the world do, that it is all very grand, and so 
we will walk about and look at the monuments. Here are 
memorials of many a bloody conflict. In the centre rest the 
remains of Nelson, and around are those of Collingwood, Moore, 
Abercrombie, and many other military and naval heroes. But 
standing in one corner is the statue of a benevolent-looking old 
man with a roll, on which you decipher the word " prisons." 
It excites a deeper thrill than any martial figure of the collec- 
tion. It is the testimonial of a nation's gratitude — the first ever 
erected in St. Paul's— in memory of a philanthropist, who spent 
a life, and traveled, at his own expense, more than fifty thou- 
sand miles, to comfort the prisoner and the distressed; and you 
easily recognize it as that to the illustrious Howard. We muse 
awhile and then walk out, to admire the front of St. Paul's. 
The joint effect of the weather and smoke upon this, as upon 
every other pubhc building in London, has been to make it re-^' 
semble a heavily shaded engraving, the bright lines and points 
being those most exposed. 

We make our exit at the side entrance, and walk down Cheap- 
side and Poultry to the commencement of Cornhill. The 
substantial edifice on the left, appearing somewhat low, from 
its vast extent, is the Bank of England. It employs 900 
clerks, covers about eight acres, and has a capital of more than 
$50,000,000. 

Right in front of us is the fine Corinthian portico of the 
Royal Exchange. But we can not delay. We pass down 
Cornhill to the corner of Bishopsgate street. It is almost im- 
possible to move or cross a street for the crowd of passengers 
and vehicles. Going down Leadenhall street, we notice a 
large building on the right, ornamented with fluted Ionic col- 
umns. It is the East India House, and here a company of 
merchants, with singular ability, govern an extensive empire, 



270 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIV. 

several thousand miles distant. We turn through a narrow 
street to the right, and get into Mark Lane. The immense 
plain- structure we now see is the celebrated Corn Market, 
whose reports influence the grain trade of the world. Pres- 
ently, we come to an open space, and all at once we get a 
glimpse of the Thames, and the walls and gloomy old battle- 
ments of the Tower. We enter the first gate, and wait awhile 
in an office, when one of the warders, a stout old gentleman in 
a queer ancient uniform, comes to conduct the party who have 
gathered. Just as we start, we buy a book, which reminds us 
that the Tower was built as a fortress by William the Con- 
queror; that in subsequent reigns, it was at times a palace, but 
oftener a horrid prison ; that the barons held it till they wrested 
the Magna Charta from King John ; that here a Scottish and 
French king were imprisoned, and an English Inonarch and 
two princes were assassinated ; that here pined or cruelly per- 
ished. Sir William Wallace, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Thomas 
Moore, the beautiful Anne Boleyn, the accomplished Lady Jane 
Grey, the gifted Sir Walter Raleigh, the eloquent Earl of 
Strafford, and many of the most noted characters in English 
history. But the talkative old gentleman interrupts our read- 
ing, and recites his lesson as regularly as a paiTot. Presently 
we are introduced to a splendid collection of figures of men 
and heroes, in the steel armor and trappings of the various 
fashions of several different centuries. The most magnificent 
is that worn by the effigy of Henry VIIL, and presented to that 
monarch by the Emperor Maximilian. We pass on to witness 
a curious assortment of warlike weapons of every age, and get 
a sight of the thumb-screws, the heavy iron collar, armed with 
points ; the horrid machine for binding together the heard, hands, 
and feet, and other instruments of torture. We are shown the 
dark cell that was the sleeping apartment of Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh, and read above names scratched upon the wall, consoling 
passages of Scripture, traced by some of the victims of the per- 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 271 

secuting Queen Mary. But we have had enough of these sad- 
der sights, and we escape to the room, where, ghttermg with 
diamonds, rubies, and gold, are four or five different crowns and 
sceptres, the gold staff of Edward the Confessor, and baptis- 
mal, sacramental, and coronation services, wrought in gold and 
silver, the whole being of immense value, and carefully guarded 
as the regalia of England. 

Leaving the Tower, we continue our walk eastward, by the 
immense basins of St. Catherine's and London docks, filled 
with Tshipping. Traversing narrow, indifferent streets, we in- 
quire for the Thames Tunnel. We enter a door at last, and find 
ourselves going down a flight of circular stairs, in a round place, 
like an immense well. On reaching the bottom, we see, run- 
ning under the Thames, two arched passages, resembling as 
nearly as possible a couple of neatly finished railroad tunnels, 
with very strong supports, and small spaces between them, 
descending to the middle of the river, and rising slightly 
toward the other side, and brilliantly lighted with gas. There 
are carriage roads in the centre of each and foot paths at the 
sides. Our voices echo strangely along the arches. A ship of 
the line may be sailing over us. "What if the Thames should 
burst in, and quench our curiosity with a cold bath ? We 
emerge on the south side of the river, take the first omnibus, 
and, thoroughly tired, go home to our hotel. How dingy and 
prison-like most English houses are outside, and how tho- 
roughly clean and well-kept inside! Here we are before a 
blazing grate, lounging upon a sofa and an arm-chair, with 
every thing bright and neat around. This is a great contrast to 
the Continent. Comfort is truly an English word. The beef 
and mutton of our, late dinner are delicious, and the servants 
are tidy and attentive, but do not forget the expected shillings, i 

It is morning again ; so at least say the clock and the break- 
fast-bell. But how dark ! We have come to London, to bor- 
row the hard expression of a friend from a sunnier clime, in 



# 



272 LOTTERINGS IN EITROPB. [Chap. XLIV. 

one of the " cut-throat months." The raw air pierces your 
chest as if it came from a cold, damp cellar. We stumble into 
the street. It is a real London fog. Not the light, semi-trans- 
parent article met elswhere, but a murky composition, that re- 
minds you of the poet's description of the shadowy place where 
dwelt the Cimmerians ; something that has what. the painters call 
"body" to it, and to which all the chimneys in the city haye 
doubtless condescended to contribute. St. Paul's is in an eclipse,, 
and we are in happy ignorance of what our next neighbors are 
doing. 

It is beginning to clear, and we will fly away from the city, 
suddenly so dismal. We get into a little steamer, and go rap- 
idly up the river. -^f || f^M a f 

Passing Westminster bridge, we notice a vast, richly-carved, 
Gothic edifice, that stands fronting the river on the north, for 
nearly nine hundred feet. It contains the new Houses of Par- 
liament. The more venerable pile, whose tun^ets we presently 
see pointing up just behind this, is Westminster Abbey. A 
little higher, on the south bank, are the palace and gardens of 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth. We pass the 
Penitentiary and Vauxhall bridge. That noble structure, front- 
ing the river on the right, is Chelsea Hospital, built originally 
as a palace for Charles II., but converted by William III. into 
a delightful retreat for disabled seamen, their widows and 
children. The Thames gets rapidly narrow, dark and clear; 
the banks, down to the very water's edige, are clothed with 
freshest verdure, diversified with luxuriant trees, and studded 
every where with magnificent villas. How gracefully those 
swans, with their white arched necks, float in the stream ! We 
leave behind the splendid seats of Chiswick, Kew, and Sion 
House and land, on the south bank, eight miles from London, 
at Richmond, tlie "finest village" in England. Climbing up 
the hill, we get the privilege of a peep from the Star and Gar- 
ter Inn. What a lovely vision ! The rich valley of the Thames, 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 273 



all the way to London, receding away to swelling hills on either 
hand, and dotted over with beautiful parks, gardens, and man- 
sions, half-hidden by trees, and divided by the winding, silvery 
sti-eam, forms one of the finest views in the world. I have gazed 
upon sunny spots in the valley of the Arno, mused upon the 
bright world before me, from the Black Forest to the Rhine, 
from the old fortress of Baden-Baden; and reveled in the 
equally sublime prospect of the vale of the Forth from Stirling 
Castle, but I have never beheld a landscape so freshly green, 
so softly finished, as that seen from Richmond Hill. 

"We ascend the river four miles farther, pass Twickenham, 
once the residence of Pope, get a view of Bushy Park, and at 
last find ourselves approaching the leading object of our trip, 
the palace of Hampton Court, built by Cardinal Wolsey. It 
is altogether a grand affair. We walk into the garden, amuse 
ourselves with the winding of the maze, and then inspect a 
sheltered grape-vine, said to be the largest and most produc- 
tive in Europe. In one part of the palace we are shown a 
splendid ancient dining hall. But the leading attraction is its 
collection of paintings. Here figure the portraits by Lely of 
Nell Gwynne, and the celebrated beauties of the court of 
Charles 11. ; and here in a fine hall, built expressly for those 
sublime representations of Scripture characters, are the match- 
less cartoons of Raphael. 

We hasten back to London, and land at Westminster bridge. 
The passing glance at Westminster Abbey was not enough. 
We stop a few minutes to walk round and admire its pointed 
architecture, and then enter. The interior is vast, richly 
wrought, and filled with memorials to the illustrious dead. 
There are the monuments of the earlier Edwards and Henrys, 
and their queens, the beautiful Mary queen of Scots, and the 
stern Elizabeth, statesmen, philosophers, painters, and heroes, 
lie mingled. Those who eloquently thundered against each 
other in life, sleep peacefully together in death j and not far 

M* 



274 - LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIV. 

separated are the remains of Pitt and Fox, Grattan, Castle- 
reagh, and Canning. As precious relics, you are shown the 
ancient coronation-chah's, under one of which is the stone 
brought by Edward I. from Scotland, declared by tradition to 
have been Jacob's pillow at the time of his vision. In the chap- 
ter-house, in good preservation, is still k^pt the famous Domes- 
day-Book of William the Conqueror. 

The guide shows us through the diffejent side chapels. 
Here we. see the gem of Westminster Abbey, the chapel of 
Henry VII., built as a splendid mausoleum for royalty. What 
a gorgeous profusion of ornament and richly-v\^rought tracery ! 
We gaze awhile at the marble effigies of King Henry and his 
queen, and make our exit from the chapel. Here we are iu 
the Poets' Corner. Almost every distinguished English poet, 
from Chaucer to Goldsmith and Thomson, has a memorial. 
We linger longer here than elsewhere. Rich are the associa- 
tions of this spot. 

Beneath this vaulted pile, yonder lines from Shakspeare, 
upon his own monument, written as if for the epitaph of all 
around, seem strangely eloquent. We read with more emotion 
than ever : 

" The cloud capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself; 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
Aud, like this insubstantial pageant faded, ^ 

Leave not a wreck behind." 

We are in the street again, and in three minutes we find 
ourselves in St. James's Park. Swans and many rare aquatic 
birds are floating on those still waters. Children are playing 
with noisy glee on the green and under the shade-trees. 

What a glorious improvement it would have been to have 
continued St. James's Park to the Thames. It would have 
given a current of air to choked London, thrown a new light 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 275 

upon Westminster Abbey, and the Parliament Houses, and 
opened one of the finest river views in the world. 

Continuing our walk past St. James's Palace, we reach the 
head of the park in front of Buckingham Palace, the ordinary 
town residence of her majesty. Neither of them, compared 
with some upon the Continent are very splendid. We will 
visit a royal residence more interesting, and which, though 
twenty miles distant, may be reached by railroad in an hour, 
and may therefore be enumerated among the sights of London. 
Leaving Paddington Station, we are whirled rapidly through ^ 
a pleasant country to Slough, and from this we get to our jour- 
ney's end by omnibus in a few minutes. Yonder castle in the 
distance, looking proudly from a high hill, is Windsor. That 
ancient brick edifice in the village this side, is Eton College, 
the place where the Duke of Wellington, Canning, and many ^ 
distinguished characters, have been educated. The boys are 
out merrily playing cricket on the green. We cross the 
Thames, here an insignificant stream, three or four rods wide, 
and mount the stairs up the steep hill to Windsor Palace. 
Getting within its lofty inclosure, we are shown into St. 
George's Chapel, one of the most elaborate specimens of ancient 
pointed architecture in England. It seems impossible that stone 
could be made so light and airy. We muse awhile by the 
monument of the lamented Princess Charlotte, and the burial 
place of George IIL and his family, then walk through the 
splendid banqueting hall of the Knights of the Garter, and the 
Waterloo Hall, hung with portraits of the rulers, statesmen, 
and generals of the era of that great conflict. After inspecting 
various other royal apartments, and gazing awhile at the busts of 
Marlborough, Wellington, and Nelson, we escape to the lofi;y 
round terrace, commanding a magnificent view of the neigh- 
boring park and the country for miles round. From the beau- 
ties of its situation, we wonder not that this has been a favorite 
retreat for the English sovereigns for so many centuries. 



276 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIV= 

We hasten back to London, take an omnibus, and come to 
an immense pleasure-ground, planted with trees, laid out in 
drives and walks, and having a fine sheet of water, the Serpen- 
tine River, in the centre. It is Hyde Park. There is a review 
^ of the troops going on at the lower end. We walk rapidly to 
the edge of the crowd. There are benches, boards, barrels, 
t and temporary stands of every description, and rapidly as 
George HI., in Peter Pindar, men, boys, and women call out 
to us " nice place, gentlemen" — " sixpence, only sixpence" — 
*' this way" — " fine view, gentlemen" — -" only sixpence." We 
get upon a high rickety bench, so as to overlook the people in 
front. The soldiers are marching, wheeling, and firing in ad- 
mirable order, and the tall Coldstream Guards are there. 
^ Luckily, we are close to the staff. That personage, to whom 
they are paying so much attention there, is a foreign prince, in 
honor of whom the review is given. The cheerful, contented- 
^ looking lady in the carriage, slightly below the medium height, 
S* with pleasant, though not handsome features, and moderately 
5, full, rounded form, is the queen. Mounted at the head of the 
staff, is a tall, slightly-stooped veteran, with gray locks and 
aquiline features, and by his side is a well-formed general-officer 
^ of about thirty years of age, with an agreeable German face. 
The former is the Duke of Wellinofton, and the latter is Prince 
Albert. 

Not having seen the newly-elected Parliament, I must here 
request the reader, in imagination, to go back a few months 
and accompany me on a visit to the former one, during one of 
the most animated debates of the last session. 

We have been courteously furnished with tickets at the 
American minister's, and as the House of Lords may adjourn 
in an hour or so, we will go there first. 

Entering the gallery, we get a first glimpse of the splendors 
of their new hall, altogether the finest apartment, in conception 
and decoration, we may probably see in Europe. That great 



Chap. XLIV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 277 

cusliion affair yonder is the wool-sack, as it is termed, on which 
is seated the president or lord chancellor. On the left from us 
we notice a number of old men sitting in white dresses. They 
iare the bench of bishops. Altogether, in its debates and every 
thing else, it is rather a quiet place. The members are gener- 
ally aged, gentlemanly-looking men, with little pretension in their 
di'ess. Unlike the French peers, they wear no uniform. Lord 
Brougham has just thundered and sat down. That tall, pleas- 
ant speaker, somewhat advanced, is the Marquis of Lansdowne, 
the ministerial leader, making explanations. The nervous, 
keen, old gentlemen, ill the white robe, that follows him, is the 
Bishop of Exeter. Several succeed. But there is to be a set 
battle in the House of Commons, and we will make the best of 
our way there. They have not yet got into their new hall, and 
we are crowded into a ratber uncomfortable gallery. That 
sedate-looking gentleman, in a huge gray wig, presiding, is the 
speaker, and the curious affair, like a colossal sceptre, lying on 
the table in front of him, is the mace — the thing that Cromwell 
called a " bauble." They are more careless-looking and noisy 
here than in the House of Lords. The stout old gentleman, 
iidgetting over some papers yonder, is the unconquerable and 
ever-plodding Joseph Hume, the useful man of economy and 
figures, and the greatest tease in the House. He has called 
the ministry to account to-night, by a grand motion condemn- 
ing their policy in interfering with Portugal. The wiry-looking 
personage, in a blue frock-coat, below medium height, bald, 
with projecting eyebrows and restless features, not preposses- 
sing, is the premier. Lord John Russell. Calmly reposing on 
one of the opposition benches, is a middle-aged gentleman, 
rather tall, with a broad chest and forehead, an intelligent and 
not unpleasant face, that our neighbor tells us is Sir Robert 
Peel. 

An unpopular member makes a prosy speech in opposition, 
and half the members go out. There are ironical cheers of " oh," 



278 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Ghap. XLIV. 



*' oh." Others follow. Presently, a manly speaker, sHghtly ad- 
vanced, and of good height, rises, and, with a delicate infu- 
^ sion of sarcasm, adroitly and plausibly, makes explanations. 
There are frequent cries of "hear," "hear." It is the re- 
doubtable foreign secretary. Lord Palmerston. Then come 
orators of lesser note. Lord John Russell drops a few clear, 
* pointed sentences. Who is that speaker that declaims so 
wildly against the ministers, with gesticulation as if his arms 
and legs were of India rubber, sometimes so extravagant 
as to make the whole house titter] Surely, it is the high 
tory. Lord George Bentinck. Now comes the grand per- 
formance of the evening. Macaulay, the essayist, who so 
rarely and yet so eloquently speaks, as one of the ministry, 
1^ rises to defend. It is his great speech for the session. The 
members come rustling quietly into their places, the va- 
cant seats are filled, the crowds in the galleries lean forward, 
and the audience hang breathlessly upon that fascinating voice, 
till you might almost hear a pin drop. He is thick-set, moder- 
ately tall, and has a placid face. His manner is elegant, and 
his sentences are so honeyed, and he betrays so much warm 
special pleading, that you might almost fancy he was declaim- 
ing one of his own essays. How beautifully he descants upon 
the history of the treaties with Portugal for the last two cen- 
turies ! 

We see by the turn things are taking, that the ministers will 
concede and conciliate a little, and the Times of to-morrow will 
tell us Mr. Hume's motion was lost. It is one o'clock in the 
morning. We have had enough for one evening. 

There, the spell is off you, and you are by your own fireside 
again. Do as we may, London makes a long chapter. Are 
you nearly asleep] 



Chap. XLV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 279 



CHAPTER XLV. 

A Chapter of Fragments — Case of Rheumatismr-British Association — Ox- 
ford — Yorkshire Elections — Lake Windermere — Coach-ride. 

England, for many reasons, is more familiar to Americans / 
than any other part of Europe. Origin, language, literature, 
religion, and commerce, have all contributed to this end. Owing, 
in some degree, to the increased facilities for traveling, descrip- 
tions of a country sustaining such a relation have latterly lost 
much of their novelty. They are almost like tales of home. 
Delightfully painted in part by our own Irving, and retouched 4k^ 
every year by crowds of eager travelers, it has scarcely a noble 
structure or city, a landscape or ruin, whose image has not been 
distinctly brought out in the picture. Really I have so little ,, 
space left of that originally contemplated for these sketches, and 
this portion of the field is already so well-known, that I am dis«- 
posed to leave out the more common-place matter, and collect 
from my notes a few passages, here and there, affording a little 
variety, so as to make up a chapter of fragments. 

There was to be a grand gathering of learned characters 
from all parts of Europe at the approaching meeting of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the an- 
cient city of Oxford. 

Preparations were making on a grand scale. 

A Swiss friend, a graduate of one of the German universi- 
ties, and therefoje scientific, had proposed jestingly that himself 
and I should constitute two of the " distinguished foreigners," 
as he termed them, present on the occasion. Fortunately, a 
leading member of one of the learned societies, at whose quiet 



280 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLV. 

literary breakfasts we had sometimes met, gave us introduc- 
tions, and the jest of my friend at length began to assume the 
prospect of sober reality. 

There are sHps, however, even between draughts of science 
and the lips. The morning previous to our intended departure, 
my companion waked stiff and moaning with rheumatism. I 
almost caught the disease from sympathy, and actually checked 
two or three half groans. But I fear my solicitude was largely 
selfish. I had set my heart on going. By accident I had 
known my friend in Paris and Vienna; I was his only intimate 
acquaintance in London, and it seemed cruel to leave him sick 
among strangers. I hesitated long between temptation and 
duty, till, with a long visage, by a spasmodic effort, I was at 
last able to announce my intention of remaining as nurse and 
physician. But the weather suddenly grew Hne ; in our anxi- 
ety we had overrated the case ; and the fourth morning two 
strangers might have been seen entering a railroad-car at Eus- 
ton Square, the more learned one limping a little, and carrying 
a pair of moustaches, and the other carrying an umbrella and 
small carpet-bag. As fast as an express train could carry us, 
we whirled away on the great western line, through green 
meadows, past luxuriant wheat-fields, sweet cottages, comfort- 
able old farm-houses, trim hedges, bushy trees, turnip-fields, 
lawns, brickyards, lordly mansions, manufactory chimneys, 
seen at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an hour, and leav- 
ing an impression very much like this sentence. 

At length the cars stopped, and we entered ancient, quiet 
Oxford. It is situated in the midst of a level, fertile plain, on 
the banks of a small river, and the first impression is peculiar 
on entering a city where nearly one fourth of the population 
are students, or members of colleges, wearing gowns, and with- 
in the compass of whose narrow limits, are the imposing edi- 
fices of some twenty colleges and five halls, besides libraries, 
museums, and other buildings. 



Chap. XLV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 281 

The British Association, whose discussions we had come to 
attend, was organizedji as most may be aware, some fifteen 
years since at York, by a number of the most zealous natural 
philosophers, mathematicians, and practical scientific observers 
of the United King'dom. Its annual meetings have been 
changed from city to city, so as to give an opportunity for the 
most liberal extension of hospitality to distinguished foreigners 
and others who are usually present. The session continues for 
a week. Its organization is most complete. The whole range 
of investigation is divided into seven sections and one subsec- 
tion, corresponding to seven leading departments of science. 
These divisions, numbered by the first letters of the alphabet, 
stand in the following order : mathematical and physical sci- 
ence ; chemical science, with its application to agriculture and 
the arts ; geology and physical geography ; zoology and bot- 
any, with the subsection of ethnology ; physiology ; statistics ; 
and mechanical science. 

Meetings and debates, on all these different subjects, were 
going on at the same time, in separate buildings or rooms, each 
department having an independent organization of president, 
vice-president, secretaries, and committees of men distinguished 
in that branch of science. 

Papers, many of them very valuable, from learned contribu- 
tors present, were first read and then courteously discussed, and 
afterward printed in the yearly transactions of the society. 

By a new regulation, ladies were admitted as spectators at 
the debates in all the sections. The meetings were exceed- 
ingly interesting in every division, and the visitors veiy numer- 
ous. Of course, the celebrated characters present formed no 
inconsiderable attraction. Side by side, harmoniously laboring 
in the same section, might be seen Le Vemer and Adams, the 
rival claimants to the discovery of the new planet; and here, too, 
were to be found the Marquis of Northampton, president of the 
Koyal Society, the Earl of Rosse, Sir David Brewster, the 



282 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLV. 

Prussian embassador, the Russian astronomer Struve, and Sir 
James Ross, the navigator. In the geological section were 
seen Dr. Buckland, Sir E,. J. Murchison, Mr. Lyell, the 
Prussian naturalist Ehrenberg, Professor Nilsson of Stock- 
holm, and many others. Professor Owen, the Cuvier of Eng- 
land, and Milne Edwards, the great French naturalist, were en- 
listed together in the department of physiology ; and associated 
in the division congenial to their literary pursuits, were Mr. 
Bancroft, the American minister, and Mr. Hallam, the his- 
torian. From his decided resemblance in face to Napoleon, 
his winning manners, and his discoveries in science, the prin- 
cipal lion of the occasion, perhaps, was the younger Lucien 
Bonaparte, prince of Canino. Frequent festivities and liberal 
hospitalities relieved at times the graver pursuits of science. 
The colleges and every place of interest in- Oxford, and the 
seats of the nobility in the neighborhood, were fi'eely thrown 
open to the members of the Association. 

In every sense of the word it proved a most delightful affair. 

My friend and I took occasion to inspect the vast literary 
treasures of the Bodleian Library, the edifice and the pleasant 
grounds of Magdalen College, and some others, and rising one 
morning very early, we went to prayers with the students, and 
listened to the chanting in the magnificent chapel of New 
College. 

TT ^P ^ T? 

It was a pleasant calm evening as I wound amid fields of 
gi'ain and cheerful prospects, and entered at last the ancient 
town of Pontefract, in Yorkshire. 

I had turned aside from the main route to fulfill a duty richly 
owed to an aged and valued friend in America, and to visit 
in person his son. 

The conveyance had scarcely stopped at the inn, when I had 
the pleasure of grasping his hand. The generous hospitality 
of my new friend soon left me nothing to desire. I had made 



Chap. XLV.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 283 

arrangements to leave almost immediately, but I found it im- 
possible to escape for two or three days, at least. So I accept- 
ed the invitation of my host to stay and busy myself as a spec- 
tator at the elections there and at the neighboring town of 
Leeds. The latter came off first. 

The day previous to the voting, there is always a preparatory 
muster of the electors. The candidates present themselves 
upon a platform, and make speeches setting forth their senti- 
ments; after which the returning officer calls for the show of 
hands, gives his opinion as to the majority, and the weaker 
party, if greatly in the minority, sometimes gives up the contest 
at this stage, so that the election takes place by acclamation. 
But in case either party wishes it, the contest may be carried 
to the polls and scrutiny of votes. 

Early the following day, I took the conveyance, and in an 
hour after was pressing, with an immense multitude, through 
the streets of Leeds, toward a common, a little way out of the 
town. Three candidates were in the field ; Mr. Beckett, a 
wealthy gentleman of the neighborhood, and moderate tory ; 
Mr. Marshall, an extensive manufacturer, on the whig interest, 
and in favor of Lord John Russell's plan for national educa- 
tion; and Joseph Sturge, the Quaker corn-merchant, of Bir- 
mingham, on the Radical interest, and against the government 
education scheme. Two members were to be returned, and 
the contest was so equal that neither of the three parties seemed 
sure of victory. I found an immense concourse gathered at 
the place. Each candidate had his followers distinguished by 
a little slip of ribbon of a particular color, with the name and 
a motto, as a badge. Horses, cabs, and even ragged boys, 
took sides. The numbers wearing blue and " Becket for- 
ever," pink and " Marshall and Education," and orange and 
" Sturge and Freedom," were nearly equal. Much courtesy 
and. manly feeling were shown by the candidates. All three 
speeches were respectable, but I fancied that, in fluency and 



284 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLV. 

tact in appealing to a crowd, the sincere-looking Quaker had 
the advantage. 

Returning to Pontefract in the evening, I managed to get 
into the thickest of the excitement of the Leeds election, next 
day. 

The qualifications for voting at the English county elections 
are, the possession of an estate worth forty shillings a year, or 
the payment of fifty pounds rent as a tenant; and in the bor- 
oughs or towns, the occupation of premises worth ten pounds 
per annum. The elector declares aloud the name of the per- 
son for whom he votes. County elections last two days, and 
town or borough elections but one day. Of course there is in- 
tense activity. 

The good people of Leeds were in a perfect uproar. Cabs 
and carriages conveying voters were flying about at a furious 
rate. To save appearances, all these matters are managed, at 
the expense of each candidate, by committees of his friends. 

Till near evening it was doubtful how the contest would ter- 
minate. The Messrs. Baines, father and son, and a powerful 
dissenting interest, were for Sturge. 

But their fiery candidate, in an anti-slavery excursion to the 
West Indies, had in some way said offensive things of those 
faithful laborers, the Wesleyan Missionaries. Leeds is one of 
the strong holds of Methodism, and Mr. Sturge paid the penalty. 
His friends tried to explain away the matter ; but the attack 
had been too pointed. Sunset brought a clear majority for 
Beckett and Marshall. Things soon became quiet; all the 
faces in the streets seemed very sad or very joyous ; and I hast- 
ened home to Pontefract. 

Next day a conflict commenced on a smaller scale, but with 
equal spirit, at the latter place. One of the sitting members, 
though otherwise agreeable to the majority of the constituency, 
had given great oflense by voting for the Maynooth grant. 

My hospitable friend was the ex-mayor of the town, and nat- 



Chap. XLV.} LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 285 

urally active in assisting to keep order. The returning officer 
read the writ, as also the statute against bribeiy. There was a 
pleasing independence and liberality manifested in the election 
speeches. I had seen Lord John Russell, at the London Tav- 
ern, silenced for half an hour by tumultuous disapprobation of 
certain unpopular measures; and the discussions at Leeds and 
Pontefract were exceedingly free. The contest was very 
doubtful, but at last the two more liberal candid^ates were de- 
clared members for Pontefract. Chairs, all garnished with 
ribbons, were brought forth, and they were paraded on the 
top of a carriage in triumph round the town. Accidentally, a 
poor fellow, slightly intoxicated, fell with his head beneath one ^ 
of the wheels. The festivities were suddenly stopped. With 
another, I was called to tell the crowd, professionally, that he^. 
was dead. The day that commenced boisterously and cheerily 
ended sadly. 

*At* <iU> 4E! «Ur. 

W ^ ^ ^ 

Some five months' imprisonment amid the hospitals of Lon- 
don, and flying visits to thronged Liverpool and busy, smoky 
Manchester, made me long for retired silvan scenery. I 
had fixed my heart on a tour among the lakes of Westmore- 
land and Cumberland ; and one sunny afternoon, as we wound 
pleasantly among green hills, all at once, calmly and brightly 
opened upon us the vision of Lake Windermere. It was lovely 
as a poet's dream. During my sojourn at Ambleside I fairly 
reveled in beauty. Sometimes I climbed to the top of Lough- 
rigg Fell, to sit for hours looking down at this "river lake," 
winding among a paradise of islands, like a broad peaceful 
stream of Eden, or I strolled away toward Wordsworth's resi- 
dence at Rydal Mount. The scenery all round Windermere is 
bewitching. 

On a calm, clear evening we made the tour of the lake in a 
tiny steamer, with a band of music. It lies sweetly embosomed 
by receding hills. Every turn unfolded something pleasing. 



286 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLV. 

Stately mansions, in the form of castles, Grecian temples, and 
pretty architectural devices, peeped from behind luxuriant 
groves. The smoke of peaceful cottages, the sight of contented 
herds, the dying fall of music on the waters, and twilight softly 
tinging all around, soothed me into a dreamy revery. 

Next morning I made an early pi] gi'image to the Dove's 
Nest, once the residence of Mrs. Hemans. She was a favorite 
of my childhood and had brought from me very early the tribute 
of tears. I stole up to the hedge on the roadside and, as almost 
the only mementoes of travel, plucked a few blue-bells and 
honeysuckles, thinking the while of her own beautiful lay, 
*' Bring Flowers." 

Soon after I was careering through a lovely country west- 
ward, on the top of a coach. Almost every scene had been 
consecjated by the poetiy of Wordsworth. One by one, va- 
rying in form and aspect, came Rydal Lake, Grassmere, and 
Thirlraere, till at last we descended to the lovely Derwentwater. 
After catching^ a o^lance of the former romantic residence of 
Southey, and looking about Keswick a little, we were on the 
road again, and passing by the pleasant lake Bassenthwaite, 
we soon rested at Cockmouth. Then by a gloomier ride along 
the seashore we reached in the evening the ancient border city 
of Carlisle. 



Chap. XLVI.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 287 



CHAPTER XLVI.. 

Meeting on a Bridge—Attractive Scenery— Edinburgh. 

It was in crossing the bridge over the Tweed at the old for- 
tress-town of Berwick, after a lonesome journey from Newcas- 
tle, that I stumbled upon a couple of delightful friends, that I 
supposed were paying their respects to the sultan, or rowing up 
the Nile. 

But steam had wrought a pleasant disappointment. It was 
a feat in the way of fast traveling. We had parted on the 
Danube, they for Turkey and the East, and I for England, and, 
as by a sort of witchcraft, we unexpectedly met over the middle 
of a stream between two kingdoms. 

Our entry into Scotland on the opposite bank was quite tri- 
umphant. We took places together in a car for the north, and 
laughed and chatted the whole way, hardly looking at any 
other scenery than the bright spots and inequalities of each 
other's faces. The little portion of earth that we noticed out- 
side seemed carefully cultivated like England, only the hedge- 
rows were not so very green, and the ornamental trees were 
not quite so luxuriant. 

At length we came to Dunbar. It was in the Castle, close 
to the town, that Edward II. found refuge after the battle of 
Bannockburn. Farther on we skirted the battle-field of Pres- 
ton, where a descendant of the Stuarts with the Highlanders 
defeated the English troops. Leaving Haddington and Mus- 
selburgh behind, we at last caught a ghmpse of queenly Edin- 
burgh. There is no city in Europe that, from its situation, is ^ 
so imposing. Prague comes nearest it, but lacks the view of 
a mountain on the one hand and ocean on the other. It crowns 



288 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVI. 

a group of hills intersected by ravines, scarcely half filled by 
art, and the houses in the old part of the town are so very lofty 
and rise, tier above tier, so proudly, that even the crowded 
dwellings of the poor, with their steep, antiquated roofs look 
grand at a distance. The prospect from the Castle, or Gal- 
lon Hill, is splendid. Nearer are seen the softer acclivities of 
the Pentland and Lammermoor hills, and more distant the 
bleaker summits of the Ochils and Grampians. On the very 
edge of the city looms up proudly the cone of Arthur's Seat. 
And there, as it laves the shore a couple of miles, you seem to 
look down upon the Frith of Forth. 

In the new part of the town the streets are wide and magnif- 
icent, though almost as primly regular, in places, as those of the 
Quaker city of Philadelphia. 

High above the old town, as a conspicuous object to the 
whole city, frowns the Castle, on a precipitous rock, rising 
above the level of the sea nearly four hundred feet. The only 
gradual approach is on the eastern side. It has been a for- 
tress from time immemorial, and from the children of the an- 
cient sovereigns being brought up there, it was termed the 
" Camp of Maidens." 

In the vicissitudes of war it was taken twice from the En- 
glish by the Scottish forces, by stratagem. The first time a 
picked band under the daring Earl of Moray crept stealthily, in 
the dead of night, from crevice to crevice, up the perpendicular 
precipice, with a short ladder, under the guidance of a desper- 
ate soldier, who had learned this secret and apparently utterly 
impracticable passage, and, shouting their war cry, rushed on and 
overpowered the slumbering garrison. The second exploit was 
less romantic. A warrior pretended to turn merchant, negotia- 
ted with the,govemor to supply a cargo of provisions, and was 
accompanied by a dozen armed followers in the disguise of 
sailors, who, when the gates opened to receive their goods, over- 
turned a carriage to prevent their being shut, and being suddenly 



Chap. XLVI.] LOITEEINGS IN EUROPE. 289 



reinforced by Sir William Douglas and a party in ambush, soon 
overpowered the defenders of the castle. 

By the Articles of Union, this fortress, and three others, must 
always be kept up and garrisoned. 

In one of the apartments are kept the 'crown and regalia of 
Scotland, discovered accidentally after a concealment of gen- 
erations. 

Upon one of the battlements is the huge ancient piece of 
ordnance, " Mons Meg," nearly large enough for a man to 
creep in and hide himself 

As you come down High-street to Canongate, a queer-look- 
ing old building is pointed out to you, with a pulpit outside, 
and an effigy of a preacher in it, and you are told it is the 
house of John Knox. Above the door are the nearly obliter- 
ated remains of the following pious inscription, traced, probably, 
under the special direction of the great reformer : 

LUFE. GOD. ABOVE. AL. AND. YOUR. NICHBOUR. AS. TOUR. SELF. 

Standing near the borders of the old and new town, and 
rather within the latter, is the splendid monument to Sir 
Walter Scott. It is visible from nearly every part of the city. 
But its details are, doubtless, too familiar, from plates and de- 
scriptions, to need repeating. 

Perched above the new town, like the Castle above the old, 
are the monument and observatory upon Calton Hill. It forms 
a delightful promenade. 

The attempt to commemorate the heroes of Waterloo, by 
crowning the " Modern Athens" with a copy of the Parthenon, 
unfortunately failed for want of funds. 

It is easy to see, in the noble university buildings, and its 
numerous edifices for public worship and charity, an index of 
the literary and moral habits of the citizens. 

Placed in a rather lowly situation for the ordinary tastes of 
royalty, is the moldering and lonely palace of Holyrood. Did 

N 



290 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVI. 

you believe in such things, you could almost fancy it to be 
haunted. Its castellated towers give it a military appearance, 
in keeping with the character of the history of its ancient ten- 
ants. The precise date of its foundation is unknown. 

By the side of it, and seeming alrriost to form part of it, are 
the unroofed walls of an ancient abbey, erected by David I., 
according to tradition, after a miraculous escape ; and illus- 
trating the prodigality of that prince to the clergy, which made 
one of his successors say he was a " sore saint for a crown." 
The place is all in ruins, and in its inclosure are still the dilapi- 
dated tombs of some of the Scottish kings and nobility. 

In one part of the palace is a rather apocryphal collection 
of portraits of more than a hundred of the Scottish sovereigns. 
But by far the most interesting portion are the apartments oc- 
cupied by the beautiful and unfortunate Queen Mary. You 
are shown her sleeping apartments, and the bed, just as left by 
her, nearly three centuries since. There are some of the im- 
plements of her toilet. 

You enter the little cabinet where the Italian Rizzio and 
two or three friends were supping with the queen, when her 
cruel and jealous husband rushed in, and, with his armed fol- 
lowers, dragged the object of their Imtred into the adjoining 
apartment, and butchered him, regardless of the tears and en- 
treaties of the queen. The black blood-stains in the floor, where 
the body lay, in one corner, either preserved or renewed, are 
still pointed out, and remind you of the horrid details of the 
atrocious deed. 



Chap. XLVII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 291 



CHAPTER XLVn: 

Route to Glasgow — The Clyde — Loch Lomond — Rob Roy's Rock — Race 
after a Pony — Loch Katrine — Stkling Castle — Bannockbuni. 

I WAS Strolling about, with happy groups, on the top of 
Calton Hill, looking at the beautiful world below, when I per- 
ceived that five minutes' delay would make me miss the train ; 
and I set off, at a furious pace, for the station. Then came a 
rush in a crowd — a last look at baggage— a whistle, and a puff 
or two, and we were flying away at rapid speed from Edin- 
burgh. A stormy election discussion among three or four 
beside me, the fiery fumes and gallant words of a military 
character, who had taken too much "mountain dew" after 
dinner, and occasional glances at the well-tilled country, occu- 
pied the attention till we reached the old town of Linlithgow. 
Then, skirting the battle-field of Falkirk, in less than two hours 
from the time we started, we were in Glasgow. 

Ih. its bustling activity, and modern appearance, this great 
commercial emporium strongly reminded me of some of our 
American cities. It owes its prosperity mainly to its trade 
with the West Indies and America, and its immense manufac- 
tures in cotton and iron. In population, as most may be aware, 
it is now the third city of the United Kingdom. The Clyde, 
which was formerly not navigable to the city, except by shallow 
craft, has been deepened several feet, artificially, for miles, and 
so as to admit ships drawing fifteen feet water. 

Early one pleasant morning, I was panting to get a down- 
ward passage in one of the Clyde steamers, that threatened to 
leave me to my reflections on shore. I succeeded. Sitting 
down, I cooled my perspiration in looking over the election 



292 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVII. 

news, and then walked the deck, looking at the banks of the 
river. Some of the prospects were beautiful. The stream, 
the channel of so much commerce, however, was here like a 
very wide canal ; and, contrary to my expectations, it was lined 
with extensive estates, and seemed rather solitary. The coffee 
for breakfast was villainous — a mere watery decoction, instead 
of the aromatic infusion. They did not seem used to so much 
company on board, and the cabin was too small. I had left my 
former traveling companions in Edinburgh, and I felt lonely. 
Looking round, I saw a lady and gentleman, whom I took to 
be Americans on a wedding tour. Those who have not wan- 
dered months or years from home have no conception of the 
feeling which a kindred human face, or the slightest memorial, 
may sometimes inspire. I was desperate, and, at all hazards, 
determined on civilly breaking the ice. Just then, however, 
we approached the splendid scenery of the Castle of Dunbar- 
ton. It crowns an isolated mountain of basaltic rock, appear- 
ing to rise steeply out of the waters. The Clyde and its trib- 
utary, the Leven, wash the greater portion of its base, and it 
is supposed anciently to have been surrounded by water. Of 
course it is a military position of great strength, and its position, 
at the commencement of the estuary of the Clyde, makes it to 
Glasgow what Tilbury Fort is to London. 

Landing at the town of Dunbarton, vye took the omnibus 
along the valley of the Leven. I happened to sit next the 
American gentleman, and discovered, to my great delight, that 
he was a fellow-townsman, known by reputation, but not by 
sight. The lady in charge was a sister. 

J fancy that Eden was, after all, a much more pleasant place 
after the accession of our graceful mother. Eve. The lovely 
banks of the Leven were certainly vastly improved by the pres- 
ence of a tasteful and happy lady. A party of four of us 
shortly after formed an agreeable traveling acquaintance, and 
the fortunes of the day from that moment improved. 



Chap. XLVIL] LOII'ERiNGS IN EUROPE. 293 

The river Leven is the outlet to Loch Lomond ; and, after a 
ride of an hour, we suddenly came in sight of the " Queen of 
the Scottish Lakes." Embarking on board a small steamer, 
we were soon floating past its beautiful wooded islands. 

Loch Lomond, like Lake Lucerne, presents, at one extremity, 
scenery soft and rich, gradually succeeded by the wild and 
sublime. At first it expands to the width of seven miles ; and, 
varying in form and size, are here clustered some thirty fairy 
islands, with names derived from the romantic legends of High- 
land chivalry. We veered frona one side of the lake to the 
other, through the midst of these, and stopped at the little town 
of Luss. Leaving the prospect of its little cottages, inn, and 
church behind, we escaped from the lovely maze of islands, 
and the lake began to grow narrow and stern. The shores 
were less wooded, and more wildly rugged. 

On the right, rising, as it were, from the very waters,. Ben 
Lomond, like an advanced sentinel of the Highland peaks, 
towers to the height of more than three thousand feet. Across 
the lake, beyond Tarbet, is seen the notched summit of Ben 
Arthur. 

All this region has been made classic by the genius of Scott. 
Every spot has its legends. There is a shelving rock, over- 
hanging the lake, where the chivalric freebooter, Rob Roy, is 
said to have been in the habit of administering cold baths to 
his more refractory prisoners, by means of a rope tied round 
the body ; and, if these were not effectual, they were followed 
by a hint that the rope would be loosened, and placed round 
the neck. 

Beyond Tarbet, we came to the mill and tumbling cascade 
at Inversnaid. This was the patrimony of Rob Roy, from 
which he, by some legal process, was rudely dispossessed ; and 
thus driven to lead the life of a desperate but high-minded 
outlaw. Close to this is Rob Roy's Cave, long his hiding-place. 

Loch Lomond is nearly thirty miles in length. We con- 



294 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVII. 

tinued our voyage to the upper extremity, a little above this, 
and then returned to Inversnaid for a pony ride over the hills 
to Loch Katrine. My friend took charge of the baggage and 
^rear-guard ; and my lot vv^as to scramble up hill, ahead of the 
dangerous crowd of competitors, and charter the animals. It 
w^as a laughable race. I was hotly pursued by a military char- 
acter — an incipient, good-natured FalstafF, whose fat did not 
prevent him from being fleet. Either my thinness, or the con- 
^ sciousness of serving a lady, gave me the victory, and the prize 
was a solitary pony, the only one left by previous travelers. 
He was a hardy Highlander, and the master offered to convey 
three of our party in a tolerable vehicle. Our anticipated ride 
on horseback was abandoned, and we toiled on wheels over the 
hills, passing, occasionally, little Highland cabins, of stones, half 
buried in earth. At last Loch Katrine and a little steamer lay 
beneath us, and we jolted furiously down the hill, and em- 
barked. Loch Katrine is more beautiful in the poetry of Scott 
than in prosy daylight. 

There are fond illusions we are loth to lose. Instead of 
giving my own impression, that the shores were somewhat cold- 
ly barren, except the beautiful isle and the lovely scenery at the 
eastern end, I had rather shut my eyes, and mutter warmly — 

" Gleaming with the setting sun, 
One burnished sheet of living gold, 
Loch Katrine lay beneath him roll'd : 
In all her length far winding lay, 
With promontory, creek, and bay, 
And islands that, empurpled bright, 
Floated amid a livelier light ; 
And mountains that, like giants, stand, 
To sentinel enchanted land ; 
High on the south, huge Benvenue 
Down on the lake in masses threw 
Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 
The fracjments of an earlier world." 



Chap. XLVIL] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 295 

In fact, Loch Katrine owes most of its charms to the witch- 
ing poetry of the "Lady of the Lake." It is scarcely one- 
fourth the size of Loch Lomond. 

Soon after, we breasted the fairy island where the knight 
Fitz-Jaraes, in the poem, started the skiff of the beautiful 
maiden. Landing at the narrow eastern extremity, we ob- 
tained a conveyance through the Trosachs (bristled territory), 
amid wildly diversified Highland scenery. The smaller lakes, 
Achray and Venachar, disappeared ; and we passed the spot 
where, at the signal of their chief, the five hundred men rose 
and disappeared from his astonished guest ; and the place 
where Fitz-James, in single combat, overcame Roderic Dhu. 

At last we entered the borders of the Lowlands, and obtained 
quarters at the inn of the little town of Calander. Having re- 
lio-iously conformed to the manners of the people, and eaten 
maccaroni at Naples, and sour-crout at Vienna, I luckily re- 
membered to call for Highland fare. Dried oatmeal cakes and 
milk were brought, among other things ; but it was a failure. 
We might as well have tried to rival the Spartans in eating 
black broth. 

The English and Scottish coaches have but four seats inside, 
and about twice as many outside. The latter, in fine weather, 
are preferable. We had no choice, as the inside places were 
taken. Next morning brought a pelting storm. We had en- 
gaged our seats over night, and, from pressing engagements, we 
could not delay. We rode all the way to Stirling, enveloped 
in shawls, great-coats, and umbrellas. 

The rain at last ceased. We deposited our effects at the 
hotel, and walked up to the Castle, once a favorite retreat of 
the Scottish kings, and famous for its historical associations. 
Here the " Lady of the Lake," with the magic ring, sought 
the monarch, to intercede for her father ; here James II. mur- 
dered the Earl of Douglas ; here the beautiful and unfortunate 
Mary was made queen ; and here John Knox preached the 



296 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIL 

coronation sermon of James VI. It is a perfect museum of 
antiquities. The prospect from this castle is one of the finest 
in the world. It is situated on the top of a very lofty, isolated 
rock, rising from the rich valley of the Forth ; the Highlands 
skirting the horizon ; the fields checkered with gi'een meadow 
or yellow grain. 

The windings of the noble river, till lost in the distance, 
present pleasing contrasts, scarcely surpassed. No less than 
twelve battle-fields are in sight. 

Leaving Stirling, I reluctantly parted w4th my excellent com- 
pany. My route lay over the field of Bannockburn, where 
Bruce, with vastly inferior forces, defeated the English, under 
Edward II. The spot where the cavalry were beguiled into 
the pits, and the place where the women and old men, dressed 
up as a reinforcement, to frighten the invading army, are still 
shown. 

After a coach ride southward, through a pleasant countryj I 
took the cars, and reached Glasgow iii the evening. 



Chap. XLVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 297 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

Prison at Sea — Belfast — Politics in a Coach — Drogheda — Dublin — Phoenix 

Park — Trinity College. 

The sun was calmly setting, as, with a crowd of passengers, 
I stood on the deck of a steamer, bidding adieu to the cotton 
mills and tall chimneys of Glasgow. We sped rapidly down 
the Clyde. Night and a storm of rain came on ; and, in a few 
hours, we were tossing about desperately in the Irish Sea. 
The salt spray was dashing over the decks, and the people 
below were paying their sick tribute to Neptune. I had picked 
up, to read on the passage, *' My Prisons," by Silvio Pellico J 
and I really fancied that the poor man had escaped one mis- 
fortune, at least, in never having been imprisoned, during a 
storm, in the close cabin of a ship. Stretching myself in my 
berth, I was rather rudely rocked asleep. 

Next morning, from a rough sea, we caught a sight of the 
hills of Antrim. 

We entered a gradually contracting arm of the sea, at the 
head of which were seen the shipping and lofty houses of 
Belfast. Getting comfortable quarters at the hotel, I spent 
most of the day in strolling about the town. It is a place of 
much commercial activity, sustaining a relation to Ireland like 
Liverpool and Glasgow to England and Scotland. 

The harbor is formed by the estuary of the river Lagan, 
connected by a canal with Lough Neagh, a few miles in the 
interior. 

Taking an inside seat in the coach for Dublin, toward even- 
ing, in company with three gentlemanly and sociable fellow- 
passengers, I soon had a glimpse of the neat villas and well 



298 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVIII. 

cultivated countiy toward Lisburn. The enterprise and capital 
of Belfast have made its neighborhood one of the most busy 
and prosperous agricultural portions of Ireland. Extensive 
bleach-greens reminded us that we were in a locality that was 
doing a great deal in the cause of linen and civilization. The 
piece of white substance upon my own person — that delicate 
substitute for the outer rind of humanity — that made me look 
so mucb less like a savage, was, probably, just making a pil^ 
grimage to its birth-place. 

Continuing our journey, just at sunset we came to Hills- 
borough. The town, and a great portion of the country round, 
are owned by the Marquis of Downshire. After a passing 
glance at his extensive mansion and pleasure-grounds, hard by, 
we hastened rapidly onward. 

Two of my fellow-passengers inside were going up to Dub- 
lin, to vote for opposite candidates, at the Trinity College elec- 
tion for a member of Parliament; and there was a pleasant 
and animated political discussion till late in the evening. 

During the night, we passed through the thriving commercial 
town of Newry ; and daybreak found us entering the ancient 
town of Drogheda, some thirty miles from Dublin. It is situ- 
ated on the river Boyne ; and about two miles and a half above 
the place, an obelisk still marks the famous battle-ground on 
which was decided the fate of James II. and the Stuarts. 

Taking the cars, in little more than an hour we were gradu- 
ally slackening our pace in the long, straggling suburbs of Dub- 
lin. Faint and weary with the night's traveling, I was soon 
after calmly refreshing at the Imperial, in Sackville-street. 

Dublin is certainly one of the most quietly pleasant cities of 
Europe. You are not overwhelmed and crowded, as in Lon- 
don ; and yet there is a great deal that is stately and beautiful. 
Except from near the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, 
Paris, there is scarcely a spot in any city, perhaps, where so 
many fine views and noble structures may be seen as from 



.Chap. XLVIII.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE 299 

Carlisle Bridge, opposite Sackville-street. The fine expanse 
of the Liffey, crowded below with shipping, the General Post 
Office, Nelson's Monument, the Four Courts, Custom House, 
with glimpses of Trinity College and the Bank (once the Par- 
liament House of Ireland), are among the. sights from this one 
locality. All the public buildings of Dublin are of singular 
grandeur and beauty. They seem as if built in the Augustan 
age of Ireland, and are generally ornamented with statues and 
elegant designs. 

The squares of the city are also magnificent. Stephen's 
Green, on the south side of the city, contains about twenty 
acres; and Merrion Square, though not so large, is still more 
tastefully laid out, and surrounded with more splendid man- 
sions. 

But the grand pleasure-ground of Dublin, and one of the 
glories of the place, is Phoenix Park. It contains upward of 
seventeen hundred acres, finely laid out in drives and open 
spaces ; and, w^ith the exception of a few trifling inclosures 
about the summer residence of the Lord Lieutenant, and some 
government edifices, it is open to all classes. 

There w^as a warmly-contested election for a member of 
parliament going on in Trinity College, and an excellent friend, 
a former student, kindly introduced me to some of its mys- 
teries. We mingled in the most animated groups, and, like 
some other busy people, might, perhaps, have been counted 
among the friends of both sides ; strolled through its pleasant 
grounds ; inspected the chapel and richly-stored museum ; and 
gazed on the portrait of Grattan, and some of its former 
worthies. 

Less pleasing was our visit to the Bank of Ireland, opposite. 
It seemed like a desecration, that the splendid legislative pile 
that had once echoed with so much eloquence, should be peo- 
pled with clerks, and devoted to the counting of gold. 

Right in front of this building, in College Green,, is the 



300 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLVHI. 

famous bronze statue of William III., so long a bone of con- 
tention between the Orangemen and the Catholics. 

On a rise of ground, near the centre of the city, stands the 
Castle, or town residence of the Lord Lieutenant. The most 
interesting portion of this is its beautiful chapel. It is filled 
with carving, of exquisite delicacy and richness. 

But the great charm of Dublin is its intelligent, hospitable 
society. It is refined, without being rigidly exclusive. Most 
of the Irish nobility have transferred their town residences to 
London ; and the master-spirits in theology, law, and medicine, 
and the professors in the University, command a preponderating 
influence, and give a liberal tone to the highest circles. In few 
cities is the stranger so kindly welcomed, or so soon at home, 
as in the Irish capital. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

Wicklow Scenery — Vale of Ovoca — Jaunting Car — " Meeting of the Wa,ters" 
• — The Seven Churches — King O' Toole — Curious Legends — Return to 
Livei'pool — Sabbath at Sea. 

A DELIGHTFULLY hospitable family, who had fairly forced 
me to be their guest, had arranged that one of the young gen- 
tlemen — the same who had been my guide through old Trinity 
— should show me the wonders of the County of Wicklow. So, 
on a pleasant afternoon, we were mounted upon a sort of huge 
affair, between an omnibus, an Irish car, and a coach. It had 
wings and processes, such as I had never seen on wheels be- 
fore ; and in the dimness of night it might have been taken for 
an unwieldy beast, with shoulders sticking out, like the Genius 
of Famine. If my memory ser^'^es me, it was termed a caravan. 



Chap. XLIX.] LOITBKINGS IN EUROPE. 301 

Our route lay a little distance from the -sea, with a green 
undulating foreground between, beyond which were fairy 
headlands and a sunny shore. We passed through the pleasant 
village of Bray, and in sight of many beautiful seats, Orna- 
mented with fine trees, till at length a bare mountain rose on 
the sight, in marked contrast with the Eden below. It was 
the Sugar-loaf. 

Half an hour after, we entered the pleasant, romantic glen 
of the Downs. It was a deep, narrow ravine, a mile and a 
half long, with the sides steeply rising in places to six hundred 
feet, and finely clothed with copse-wood. A clear stream mur- 
mured at the bottom. In one place, a kind of rural observa- 
tory was perched upon an overhanging pinnacle. Beyond this 
we passed through an avenue of ancient oaks and chestnuts, 
ornamenting the country-seat, once th^ home of Mrs. Tighe, 
authoress of " Psyche." 

Though there are so many mansions of the wealthy to be 
seen scattered over Ireland, their estates are not generally 
so well cultivated as in England. The hedges are often bro- 
ken ; the fields less carefully tilled ; and the grounds and build- 
ings have often an air of half desolate grandeur. Absenteeism 
and the greater insecurity of life and property are, perhaps, 
the causes. 

Just at sunset we arrived at the town of Arklow, at the 
mouth of the river Ovoca. From this we set ofi" for the cel- 
ebrated " Vale of Ovoca." We were soon in the midst of its 
beauties. I never saw a valley so lovely. It is about eight 
miles in length, and may average a quarter of a mile in width. 
In the centre, through lawns and grounds ornamented with 
clumps of trees, winds a gentle river, and at the sides rise lofty 
romantic hills, covered with woods ; the whole forming a land- 
scape as charming and luxuriant as a painter's dream. 

We passed Shelton Abbey, the fine seat of the Earl of 
Wicklow, and soon after reached the Wooden Bridge Inn, in 



302 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIX. 

one of the sweetest spots of the whole valley. We were soon 
quietly slumbering. 

Next morning we rose early, and climbed the wooded hill in 
the rear. The prospect was enchanting. Here the rivers Augh- 
rim and Ovoca blend, and form what is termed the " second 
meeting of the waters." It is not determined whether this or 
another " meeting" above is the place celebrated by Moore. 
Here, too, meet in a common centre four lovely glens. The 
reflection of the silvery waters, the rich meadows and spreading 
trees, the lofty hills, fringed with woods of freshest foliage to 
the very top, like walls to the paradise below, formed the most 
pleasing earthly combination. 

We feasted our eyes a while, and then ordered an Irish 
jaunting-car. This is a national vehicle. It is a raised platform, 
extending over a couple of wheels, and descending, outside, so 
as partially to conceal them. This is shaped something like 
three steps of a pair of stairs, running lengthwise on each side, 
upon the middle one of which the passenger sits sideways, 
while the bottom step receives the feet. Above the highest 
step, in the middle of the vehicle, there is, running lengthwise, 
a little platform, eighteen inches wide, upon which the arms 
and back may partly rest, and it is usually covered with what 
the drivers term a coorting cusliion. They are often elegantly 
made and mounted on springs, and they are really light and 
very convenient affairs. 

My friend and I mounted, back to back, and, by partially 
turning, were brought nearly side to side ; the driver chirruped, 
and away we glided up the valley. The morning was singu- 
larly beautiful. Our Jehu was a real native, and when we 
could spare time to turn from the bright visions around us, 
amused us greatly. At length we came to the small spot where 
the waters of the Avonmore and Avonbeg unite to form the 
Ovoca, distinguished as the " first meeting" of the waters. Point- 
ing to the pretty little promontory between the two streams, the 



Chap. XLIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 303 



driver said, " Do you see that three there, gintlemin % Sure, an 
'twas sitting there that Tommy Moore wrote the * Mating o' 
the wathers.' " I inquired if there was any way for me to get 
under its shade. " Av coorse, if ye've a turn for coraposin'," 
he replied. . 

There was a pretty cottage beyond, in which he said Moore 
had lived. Beyond this we came to the Lion's Bridge, leading 
up to Castle Howard, the noble mansion of the family of that 
name, looking grandly from the top of a hill. 

Passing the copper mines, and the hill sides covered with 
huge wheels and machinery, we made our exit from the Vale 
of Ovoca, and came to the little town of Rathdrum. 

A few miles beyond I stopped to visit a little temporary 
shed where government rations were being distributed to the 
starving poor. At another place we went to examine some of 
their little mud cottages. 

Driving up a lonely valley, we saw a little inn, a few old 
ruins, and mud cabins ; and a fierce-looking native came run- 
ning up to us, half out of breath, exclaiming, " Ye're welkim 
to the city, gintlemin !" 

The remains and crumbling walls we saw were those of the 
"Seven Churches" so famous for their legends, and close at 
hand was the Lake of Grlandalough, celebrated by Moore. 

We engaged the wild man as guide. He began in a sort of 
singing, nasal tone to repeat — 

'' By that lake whose gloomy shore 
Skylark never wai'blea o'er : 
Where the cliff hangs high and steep, 
Young St. Kevin stole to sleep." 

He was altogether a rare character. With the face of an un- 
dertaker, he gave us a perfect torrent of rich drollery and strange 
superstition. Legend after legend came with marvelous fluency. 
He began with that of King O'Toole, St. Kevin and the Gray 



304 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIX. 

Goose, so amusingly given by Lover — telling how this *' prince 
and. plenny-penny-tinchery o' these parts," when " sthricken" in 
years, was " divarted" by a favorite goose that " cotched throut," 
and flew every other day about the lake, "divartin" the poor 
"owtld king," and in " coorse o' time" was the greatest "pet 
in the counthry and the biggest rogue ;" that when the goose 
grew old and unable to fly, the king was lost " complate," and 
melancholy *' intirely ;" and that just at this crisis St. Kevin, in 
the disguise of a " dacent" young man, scraped the acquaintance 
of the king, and offered to make his " owld goose as good as 
new," if he would give the saint all the land the goose flew 
over, to found, a place of "pius larnin;" and that, taking the goose 
by the wings, St. Kevin made the sign of the cross, and she 
flew like one of the " aigles thimselves, and cuttin' as many 
capers as a swallow before a showier of rain," and " bein' let into 
the saycret," by St. Kevin, she flew all round a space of several 
square miles, of which the saint obtained possession, and thus 
were founded the "Sivin Churches." 

Every spot about the place seemed to have its particular 
legend. Our guide was rattling away his stories so fast that I 
could not catch them. He pointed to a seam in the neighbor- 
ing rocks, and, at my request, more leisurely commenced — 

" Grintlemin," said he, "do see that erase in the hill there." 
We nodded in the affirmative. " Well, once there lived in these 
parts an Irish joyant (giant) by the name of Fin MaCool. 
An' he had a shword that was made by Vulcan, the king of the 
blacksmiths (you know that Vulcan was the ugliest man and 
Vanus, his wife, the purtiest woman — the purtiest woman in all 
Ireland), an' he came here with his shword one day, and met 
St. Kevin. You know St. Kevin was a schoolfellow o' the 
Prophet Jeremiab, and the schoolmaster was Epi — Epigo — 
Epigonazer." "You mean Nebuchadnezzar," said I, almost 
lying down with laughter. " Ye're right, Misther," said he. 
« An' siz St. Kevin, 'Where are you goin', Fin MaCool ]' * To 



Chap. XLIX.] LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. 305 

a gi'eat battle in Kildare,' siz the joyant. * Sure an' it's all 
over,' siz St. Kevin, an' with that Fin MaCool was angered in- 
tirely, and gav three leps across the valley there, and cut that 
erase ye see in the rocks with his shword." 

We were rowed across the little " gloorijy lake," climbed by 
a dangerous path, and stretched ourselves in the small cave 
where tradition says St. Kevin fled to escape from an enamored 
maiden with " eyes of most unholy blue." 

The guide then pretended to read the inscription on King 
O' Tool's tombstone, and declared that a little crescent on one 
of the loose stones was the mark of a horse's shoe in "owld 
times, afore the horses' hoofs grew together by constant shoe- 
in'," observing, with a knowing look, that it " used to be very 
inconvanient to have the sticks and stones gettin' atween their 
toes." 

Shouting at the top of his voice, so as to waken an echo from 
the hill side, said he, " That's the greatest echo in all Ireland, 
barin' one in Killarney, that when ye shout, ' Paddy Blake, how 
do ye do? answers, 'Purty well, I thank you.' " 

We could still trace the ruins of no less than seven churches. 
These edifices are reputed by antiquaries to have been built 
about the sixth century. Among them was one of the curious 
round towers which have so puzzled them. It was like a small, 
round windmill, perhaps a hundred feet high, and had an open- 
ing a few feet from the ground. 

Leaving this we visited the wild recesses of the Devil's Glen, 
and in the evening arrived by the railroad in Dublin. 

Taking the steamer, I crossed to Liverpool, and after rang- 
ing a day or two about its splendid docks, I embarked on board 
the steamer Guadalquivir for New York. We took the northern 
course, and passed close to the Giants' Causeway. It seemed 
at that distance like a good engraving a mile or two magnified. 

We were on board a new iron steamer, making her first ocean 
voyage. The fortune of our gentlemanly Captain H , after 



306 LOITERINGS IN EUROPE. [Chap. XLIX. 

a singularly successful career, had been clouded by the fate of 
the Great Britain. Some of our friends in Liverpool had 
grasped our hands and muttered despondingly, as if we were 
never to meet again. There was something of nervous anxiety 
in the face of most of the passengers. A mother, in delicate 
health, who had embarked with her family, looked at the reced- 
ing land till tears came, and with a heavy sigh she wished she 
could only escape to the shore. 

It was the first and last Sabbath of the voyage. The day 
was beautiful, and yet lonely. At length the coast of Ireland 
lay like a blue cloud in the distance. Save a faint ripple, now 
and then, the sea was calm as a woodland lake. An awning 
was stretched over the deck, under which mattresses were spread 
for the sick. All uncovered, and the captain effectively and 
earnestly read the Episcopal service. 

I had listened to that sweetly solemn ritual in many a Gothic 
pile, raised by human hands, and varied by many a chanted strain, 
but it had never appealed so to the better feelings, as when its 
responses were breathed beneath the vaulted sky, and mingled 
with the murmur of the yielding waters ; and with the emotions 
they inspired we caught a parting glimpse of land, and steered 
on the pathless sea toward the setting sun. 



APPEIDIX. 



APPENDIX. 

LECTURE I. 

EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 



Delivered before the Hamilton Literary Association. 

It may be proper, in explanation, briefly to say, that the 
facts about to be embodied, were gathered in the execution of 
a commission entrusted to me on sailing for Europe some two 
years since, by the efficient "Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor ;" whose officers and members you have 
so kindly invited to be present this evening. If any thing 
good should be suggested by this effort it will be from seed 
they have sown. 

I owe them a thousand thanks for having drawn my atten- 
tion to a subject, that unexpectedly affi^rded more interest and 
pleasure in traveling than any single thing besides. 

Justice also compels me gratefully to acknowledge the as- 
sistance received from their Excellencies, Mr. King, late Minis- 
ter at Paris ; Mr. Bancroft, at London ; Mr. Donelson, at 
Berlin ; and the very kind attentions of Mr. Schwartz and the 
Hon. Mr. Stiles, our excellent representative at Vienna. 

I frankly confess, I have not responded to your courteous 
call without some misgivings. 

In this same building you have been accustomed to listen to 
eloquent natural philosophers, till in fancy you have almost 



310 APPENDIX. ILecture I. 

fathomed the mysteries of chalk and oolite, granite and trap, 
and settled the claims of fire and water ; or, more daringly 
still, you have essayed to put the compass to the ring of 
Saturn, dissect the tajl of a comet, or lose yourselves among 
the nebulae. 

Sometimes you have been charmed vv^ith recitations taken 
from Shakspeare and our best poets. With celebrated travelers 
you have, in thought, unrolled a mummy, climbed a pyramid, 
or bowed to mandarins, and played at chop-sticks. And after 
all this, will you patiently listen to one of your own quiet 
citizens, unknown to you as a lecturer, whose subject is the 
poor, and who has nothing to attract you but plain statistics 
and simple narrative. 

I feel that I have a very difficult task. Yet ther§ are two 
or three encouraging circumstances. One of these is the cheer- 
ing presence of those gentler ones, who are ever interested in 
any thing that relates to the relief of human suffering. 

I often think of the boy who, on hearing the quotation, 

" An honest man's the noblest work of God ;'" 

exclaimed : " That's a lie — my mother is !" 

Another consoling fact is the prevalence of a! voracious 
appetite for every kind of information. You are fortunately 
too hungry to be fastidious. Had you not felt thus you would 
not, for nearly twenty years, have so well sustained this ex- 
cellent institution, appropriately named after the illustrious 
statesman whose portrait overshadows me, and who rose to 
one of the highest niches in the temple of his country's glory 
by a similar ardor. 

Popular lectures on every earthly subject, and some things 
unearthly, are happily becoming almost as common as music 
by machinery in the streets. Not an inoffensive citizen 
can dress in black, addict himself to books, and cross the 
ocean, but on his return, through kind, persuasive friends, he is 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 311 

in danger of writing a book of travels, or delivering a public 
lecture. 

Yet every day makes the task of gratifying this thirst for 
something new more difficult. It is hard to shine when the 
firmament is already full of stars. It is not easy to catch the 
public ear when it is sated with eloquent sounds. Besides, as 
we intimated before, our subject, at the first blush, seems unat- 
tractive. But we rest upon its importance. It concerns beings 
of our own flesh and blood, crushed to the earth by poverty, it 
is true, but bearing the image of their Creator, and capably of 
being raised again, by kindly means, to fill the highest destiny of 
man. It leads us to dwell upon such blessed influences in 
some of the most densely peopled spots of the old world, where 
misery is rankest. It has to do with a class of sufferers who 
are gathering around us more thickly every day, and whom 
so many of the best spirits of our city have lately banded together 
to redeem. 

It is proposed, with little order, but slight analogy, and the 
arrangement which will convey the most in the least space, to 
devote this evening to European charities for children. 

To begin at the earliest stage, we will commence with what 
may be termed a nursing society. 

As you go from Pont Neuf to the Sorbonne, in one of the 
closest quarters of Paris, near the Rue de la Harpe, you may 
ascend a flight of stairs and enter a suite of rooms filled with 
cradles, swings, and toys. 

It is one of the establishments for the children of poor, labor- 
ing women, termed creches, or cradles. Any mother having 
four children, and in indigent circumstances, is allowed, with- 
out charge, to deposit her infant offspring during the working 
hours of the day, while she goes out to earn something for 
their subsistence. 

Nurses are hired to attend them, who feed them with milk 
and suitable diet; the mothers briefly visit them occasionally 



312 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

during the day, and at night return to take them to their homes. 
Sundays and holidays, of course, these curious infant asylums 
are empty. 

Imagine, for a moment, the busy scene. The head-nurse is 
bustling about in the midst of her extensive family, as anxiously 
as a hen with too many chickens. 

Some are strengthening their limbs by crawling, and others 
their lungs by crying. A group are gathered, like lambs in a 
fold, in a sort of circular crib, forming a Juvenile Mutual 
Amusement Society. 

One of the. nurses, perhaps, is teaching very young ideas " how 
to shoot" in natural history, by showing a wooden horse, and 
another is giving lessons in music on a drum. A few of the 
older children, who can just walk, are prattling away, and re- 
mind you of the simple countryman who wrote to his friends 
in England, that in France even the little children spoke 
French. 

The cheerful washerwoman that you see pounding away all 
the day long in one of the arks along the Seine, the rosy- 
cheeked matron, buried in hyacinths and mignonettes, in the 
flower market of the Cite, or even the poor rag-gatherer that 
goes drooping along, picking rubbish and bits of paper from the 
streets, is perhaps fondly dreaming of her charge in a neighbor- 
ing creche. 

In each of the twelve arrondissements of Paris is distributed 
one of these establishments. 

Perhaps the most active benevolent agency which befriends 
these and kindred institutions is the Societe de Charite Mater- 
nelle, latterly under the presidency of the queen ; and thus, in the 
advancing humanity of the age, has been verified the prediction 
that " queens shall become nursing mothei's." 

More familiar to you, from the frequent accounts of travelers, 
and therefore requiring less minute description, is the celebrated 
Parisian Foundling Hospital, or Hospice des Erifans Trouves, 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 313 

near the garden of Luxembourg, founded some two centuries 
since by St. Vincent de Paule. As you approach the entrance, 
you perceive a Httle box, like a cradle, set in the wall, and 
turning on a pivot, by which, in perfect secrecy, a child may be 
deposited, and the bell just at hand rung to summon the at- 
tendant for its release. It was found latterly, however, that 
this easy method of abandoning those whose helplessness con- 
stitutes their strongest claim, gave rise to many abuses. The 
tone of public morals was lowered ; children from the country 
were brought unfairly to burthen the city ; mothers often aban- 
doned their legitimate offspring, and then applied, as nurses, to 
rear them at the expense of the state; and, finally, the mortality 
among infants, thus forsaken by their best friends, became fear- 
fully great. The tours for secret admission have therefore been 
partially closed ; money and persuasion used to induce parties 
to retain their children ; a certificate from the police required, 
and other reforms have been latterly introduced. The found- 
lings who are healthy are immediately given to suitably recom- 
mended nurses, who are constantly applying for them, to be 
reared in the pure air of the country, at the rate of from four 
to eight francs, or not exceeding about a dollar and a half per 
month. 

At my visit, I was struck with the perfect order that pre- 
vailed. Long rows of little ones, neatly wn-apped in the French 
style, lay passive as mummies ; and healthy-looking nurses were 
constantly moving about among the objects of their care. 

Every morning a physician comes to distribute those in 
waiting. The chilled or weakly are gently laid upon an in- 
clined bed, in front of the fire. Great care is taken to presei-ve 
mementoes and evidences of their origin, so that they may be 
claimed at any future time. 

Upward of four thousand children per year have been de- 
posited, on an average, during the last fifteen years. Of these, 
one-fourth die annually. Latterly the yearly expense has con- 

O 



314 APPENDIX. [Lecture L 

siderably exceeded a million of francs. Whenever admission 
has become more difficult, infanticide has increased in the city. 

Desio^ned for older children than the creclies, or the Foundlins: 
Hospital, are the Germmi Kinder-bewaJir Atistcdten, or Children- 
Preservation Institutions, common in Austria, Saxony, and 
Prussia. 

You are probably aware that, in many parts of the Conti- 
nent, females labor much in the open air, and patiently engage 
in severe toils M^hich nature seems to have designed for the 
" Lords of Creation." 

I remember that this feature particularly struck me in 
Vienna. Women act as porters, and carry heavy burdens 
upon a sort of vv^ooden affair upon the back, about the city, 
at all hours. 

When a new brick building is going up, you may sometirnes 
see women attending the masons, as patiently as the lady 
Israelites assisted their spouses in making bricks for the Egyp- 
tians. Of course, the children of these poor laboring women, 
who happen to be between the nursing and the school age, are 
motherless during the day, and liable to run wild in the streets. 
To preserve these little ones, asylums, with play-grounds, have 
been established in most of the German cities. The inmates 
are generally from two to five years of age. Some amiable 
married couple, of moderate literary pretensions, are generally 
employed to take charge, at a very small salary. The super- 
intendent of one of those in Vienna told me that he and his 
lady assistant received jointly two hundred florins, or about one 
hundred dollars. 

These establishments somewhat resemble infant schools, only 
that-'a great deal more attention is paid to physical exercise. 
Harmless play is encouraged, and, altogether, their little in- 
mates seem very happy. There is a full assortment of toys 
and sources of amusement. 

A little counting and singing, and a few simple religious 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 



315 



forms, seemed to constitute the main part of their ipfant exer- 
cises, if we except the very important one of developing their 
limbs. There is no doubt but the Germans are right in attend- 
ing, at this tender age, more to physical than to intellectual 
growth, and that these are highly benevolent institutions. It is 
said that the empress-mother takes great interest in those of 
Vienna, and frequently sends them presents. 

We have not time, in this brief sketch, to enter into details 
of the Hopital des Enfans Malades of Paris, or the admirable 
institutions for sick children in London and other cities ; but 
there has been a humane project recently tried in Switzerland, 
whose novelty merits .distinction. 

High up the most elevated valleys of the Alps, amid scenes 
where all else is grand and beautiful, man often degenerates to 
a pitiful, deformed creature, or a chattering idiot. In the words 
of Shakspeare, a "hideous wallet of aesh" grows upon the 
front of the neck, enlarging what is technically termed the 
thyroid gland, and forming what in Switzerland is called goitre; 
or the head becomes misshapen, the countenance vacant, the 
limbs stunted, the speech indistinct, and the intellect shattered; 
and the victim is then termed a cretin. In some of the worst 
localities, such as the Vale of Aosta on the Italian side of 
Mont Blanc, Sion and Orsieres in the Canton of Vallais, almost 
every family is more or 'less aifected. 

I have a vivid recollection of a morning walk in one of the 
most infected villages of the Canton of Vallais. I inquired the 
way from the first tottering deformed creature I met in the 
street, and he rephedwith a vacant stare and uncouth sounds. 
Idiot children, in rags, were lying on the ground, basking in the 
sun, with just instinct enough to stretch out their hands to beg ; 
and the filth of the stricken place was most offensive. These 
affections have been variously attributed : to the drinking of 
snow water, the caiTying weights on the head, filthy habits, the 
impregnation of the water, and the like; tut the observations 



316 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

of Sir Astley Cooper and others lead to the belief that they 
are caused by the impure air generated in very confined val- 
leys. It has been lately discovered that, by sending infected 
children, very young, to a healthy locality, and subjecting them 
to suitable treatment, they can often be cured. With this be- 
nevolent design, Dr. Guggenbuhl, a Swiss philanthropist, whom 
I had the pleasure of meeting, has recently founded a hospital 
for the cure of these affections, in the Canton of Berne. This 
institution is near the pretty village of Interlachen, and the 
beautiful lakes Thun and Brientz, in view of the Jungfrau and 
the most magnificent peaks of Oberland. It is an interesting 
fact, that the treatment of these affections by Dr. Coindet, of 
Geneva, a few years since, led to the discovery of the medicinal 
use of iodine, one of the greatest boons to the afflicted of the 
present century. 

To cross the Alps : there is no city in Europe where there 
are more beggars, in proportion to its population, and none 
where there is, probably, a greater amount of charitable relief 
for them, than Rome. Its hospitals are ill-kept palaces, and 
its benevolent foundations, of every kind, are immense. The 
tax for such purposes, on lotteries alone, yields a yearly rev- 
enue of $40,000 ; and it is customary for the pope to distrib- 
ute, from his private almonry, nearly as much more. Besides 
casual voluntary assistance, it is estimated that, from regular 
sources, not far from a million of dollars is annually expended 
by the various charities of a city not numbering a hundred and 
fifty thousand souls. Yet, notwithstanding this liberal pro- 
vision, there is much apparent want visible. One is often be- 
sieged for alms in the streets ; and the stranger is forced to 
believe there is a good deal of mismanagement in the applica- 
tion of these funds. 

It is true, there must be swarms of applicants. Italy, with 
a. few bright exceptions, appears to the traveler like a poverty- 
Btricken land — blighted, and yet beautiful even in her ruin. 



Lecture T.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 317 

Among the thousands who annually visit her ancient capital 
from the provinces, many, doubtless, come for bread. The 
crowds of rich foreigners who yearly flock there, like birds of 
passage, attract them by the alms they scatter with a lavish 
hand. In fact, Rome is a sort of terrestrial paradise for beg- 
gars. A mild climate renders much clothing unnecessary. 
They lodge as cheaply as the bats, amid the ruins of marble 
baths and desolate palaces, and dine on roasted chestnuts, in 
the square of the Pantheon. The devout, without charge, may 
listen to the organ of St. John in Lateran, mount the Holy 
Stairs, or worship at the Apostle's Tomb, where the lights are 
ever burning in St. Peter's ; and on great occasions, from its 
imposing front, the pope kindly bestows upon them a genera;l 
blessing. The mischievous join in the fun in the Corso, during 
the carnival, as lustily as gentlemen in disguise. 

Decidedly the most interesting charity in Rome is the ex- 
tensive establishment of San Michele, on the right bank of the 
Tiber. It contains an asylum for old people, and a house of cor- 
rection for females and juvenile offenders. But by far the most 
extensive and attractive portion is the house of industry, de- 
voted to the purpose of teaching poor children, male and 
female, some trade or employment by which they may earn a 
livelihood. 

Except in the absence of bars and cells, and the presence of 
general cheerfulness, the first aspect of a place where black- 
smithing, carpentering, hat, and shoe-making, spinning, weaving, 
embroidery, and all the more ordinary domestic pursuits were 
going on, reminded me for a moment of the busy appearance 
of one of our own state prisons. They were toiling away as 
merrily as bees. 

The principal manufacture is that of cloth for the Papal 
troops. The girls are also much employed in making military 
ornaments. Journeymen from the trades' establishments in 
the city are procured to teach the boys. Those learning trades 



'518 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

receive a trifling allowance for their work, varying with its 
excellence ; and on completing the course, each apprentice 
L-eceives, on leaving, thirty dollars. The girls are permitted to 
remain, if they wish, in another department, where they get 
regular employment ; and a few generally enter the nunneries. 
There is a school of arts connected with the establishment, 
where the more promising of the boys have lessons in sculpture 
and design. Some of their performances are really wonderful. 
All the children receive instruction in the common branches of 
education, to which are added French and music. There are 
no qualifications necessary to obtaiti the advantages of this 
excellent institution but poverty, and birth within the Roman 
States. The proceeds from the sales of the articles manu- 
factured are insufficient entirely to maintain the concern, and it 
receives a certain amount of support from the State. 

Tn no Italian city, perhaps, is there the appearance of so 
much industry, comfort, and good order among the lower 
classes as Florence. In contrast with every other place in the 
country, you are astonished to find yourself free from the 
importunities of the needy. Street-begging is prohibited ; 
liberal public provision is made for the poor ; and any one 
found asking alms, is sent, in charge of the police, to earn his 
living at Monte Domini. 

This excellent establishment, like the Hospice of St. Michele 
at Rome, contains a highly interesting industrial department, 
where a large number of poor children, of both sexes, are 
educated, and taught mechanical and other pursuits. It was 
similar to that at Rome, only that it was better conducted. 
Less attention was paid to the fine arts, and much more to 
practical pursuits. Some of the iron fabrics were very beauti- 
ful. In proof of their cheerful enjoyment, I remember that 
on entering the cabinet-shop, some fifty or sixty apprentice 
boys were spontaneously singing in chorus at their work, and 
the good-natured attendant, something to my regret, arrested 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 319 

their boisterous music. Every thing about it bore the aspect 
of extreme iieatness^i and altogether it was one of the best kept 
public institutions I ever' visited. The children struck me as 
remarkably healthy looking. Beautiful marble baths were 
erected in one part of the premises ; a-nd the ceremony of 
initiation consisted in a good cleansing. 

The head matron of the girls' department happened to be a 
lively, kind-hearted French lady. - She was quite enthusiastic, 
and with pardonable pride boasted of the superior education of 
her young ladies, declaring they had regularly taken their de- 
grees in housewifery. It appeared that th ey were systematically 
trained for domestic life ; and that, occupying themselves in each 
branch long enough to acquire it well before commencing the 
next higher, they learned in rotation knitting, sewing, spinning, 
weaving, and quite a circle of household pursuits. Struck with 
their accomplishments, I ventured very naturally to ask the 
communicative matron the bachelor question whether they 
made good wives. I found her a perfect matchmaker. She 
stated that four or five marriages had recently taken place, and 
entertained me with quite a romantic account of the last. 
Amused with her description, and recollecting that marriage in 
Italy was generally a cool matter of convenienc'e, arranged by 
the parents, with little previous acquaintance between the prin- 
cipal parties, further than a bare sight of each other, I inquired 
of her the way in which these poor-house affairs of the heart 
were commonly managed. She said that her young ladies went 
frequently under the charge of some one to take the air, and if 
any gentleman in the street saw one of the flock whose appear- 
ance he admired, he was satisfied with this rank-and file court- 
ship, and as she did not commonly object to changing her con- 
dition, he popped the question, not to the fair, but the poor- 
officers, and, if accepted, they were forthwith married. 

There was a magazine attached to the estabhshment, well 
stored with its manufactures, and the prices ranged a trifle lower 



320 APPENDIX. [Lecture L 



than elsewhere. The proceeds, though greatly assisting, were 
insufficient to support the concern, and the deficiency was made 
up by a very light tax on lotteries and salt. 

There are strong objections to taking children from the kindly 
influences of home and its loved ones, and lodging them in large 
numbers within extensive edifices. Whether in the wigwam of 
the Indian, the tent of the Arab, or the city mansion, it is evi- 
dent that nature has intended that the human species should Ke 
reared in families. Let us fly, then, from the south to the north, 
to inspect a labor system of instruction for poor children which 
is free, at least, from this defect. 

In October, 1841, an industrial school for the poor — the first, 
it is believed, of the kind, in Scotland, if not in Great Britain, was 
established at Aberdeen. At this time it was ascertained that 
there were nearly three hundred children in the city subsisting 
partly by begging and partly by theft. They were the ragged, 
unwashed, haggard little creatures that you see lurking about 
the docks, close alleys, and dark passages of most European cities. 
This is not mentioned as a reflection upon any country, for with 
the blessings enjoyed in densely populated places, are ever min- 
gled the ills of poverty and vice, and our own cities would soon 
present the same spectacle were not labor abundant, food cheap, 
and a boundless, fertile country in the rear. The facts which we 
mention, too, may make some prejudiced minds more charitable 
in judging of the social difficulties of other countries. Especially 
in England and Holland, millions are expended annually upon 
the poor. But while all the benevolent instrumentalities noticed 
on the present occasion reflect credit upon the various nations 
where they exist, the extent of the provision for its cure but helps 
to convince us of the fearful character of the disease. Some of 
the scenes of squalid poverty among the densely crowded cities 
of Europe are really startling. For fear of exaggeration let us 
boiTow, as an example, a Scottish minister's description of the 
41 occupants of the Grass Market, Edinburgh : 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 321 



<» 



^ 



"On one side of this square, in two-thirds of the shops (for 
we have counted them) are spirits sold. The sheep are near 
the slaughter-house — the victims are in the neighborhood of 
the altars. The mouth of almost every close is filled with 
loungers, worse than Neapolitan lazzaroni-;--bloated and brutal 
figures, ragged and wretched old men, bold and fi.erce-looking 
women, and many a half-clad mother shivering in cold winter, 
her naked feet on the pavement, and a skeleton infant in her 
arms. On a summer day, when in the blessed sunshine and 
warm air, misery itself will sing; dashing in and out of these 
closes, careering over the open ground, engaged in their rude 
games, arrayed in flying drapery, here a leg out and there an 
arm, are crowds of children : their thin faces tell how illy they 
are fed ; their fearful oaths tell how illy they are reared ; and 
yet the merry laugh and hearty shout and screams of delight, as 
some unfortunate urchin at leap-frog measures his length upon 
the ground, also tell that God made -childhood to be happy, and 
that in the buoyancy of youth even misery will forget itself. '<-' 

" We get hold of one of these boys. Poor fellow ! it is a 
bitter day. He has neither shoes nor stockings ; his naked feet 
are red, cracked, ulcerated with cold ; a thin, thread- worn . 
jacket, with its gaping rents, is all that protects his breast; be- 
neath his shaggy bush of hair he shows a face sharp with want, 
yet sharp also with intelligence beyond his years. That poor ^ 
little fellow has learned already to be self-supporting. He has 
studied the arts-^— he is master of imposture, lying, begging, 
stealing; and small blame to him, but much to those who have 
neglected him, he had otherwise pined and perished. So soon ^ 
as you have satisfied him you are not connected with the police, 
you ask him, ' Where is your father V Now hear his story — 
and there are hundreds could tell a similar tale. ' Where is 
your father V ' He is dead, sir.' ' Where is your mother V 
'Dead, too.' 'Where do you stay]' 'Sister and I and my 
little brother live with granny.' ' What is she V ' She is a 



322 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

widow woman.' * What does she do V ' Sells sticks, sir.' ' And 
can she keep you all V * No.' * Then how do you live V * Go 
about and get bits of meat, sell matches, and sometimes get a 
trifle^ from the carriers for running an errand.' ' Do you go to 
school V ^ No, never was at school ; attended sometimes a Sab- 
bath-school, but have not been there for a long time. * Do you 
go to church V ' Never was in a church.' * Do you know who 
made you ]' ' Yes, God made me.' ' Do you say your pray- 
ers V ' Yes, mother taught me a prayer before she died, and 
I say it to granny afore I lie down.' ' Have you a bed V * Some 
straw, sir.' 

" Such children can not pay for an education, nor avail them- 
selves of a gratis one, though offered. That little fellow must 
beg and steal, or he starves. With a number like himself, he 
goes as regularly to that work of a morning as the merchant to 
his shop, or the tradesman to his place of labor. They are 
turned out — driven out sometimes — to get their meat, like 
sheep to the hills, or cattle to the fields ; and if they bring not 
home a certain supply, a drunken father and a brutal beating 
await them." 

Well, it was to rescue such abandoned young creatures that, 
as we said before, a few benevolent spirits determined to try 
the experiment of an industrial school in Aberdeen. It held 
out to them the offer of food, education, and employment. The 
children breakfasted and supped on porridge and milk, and 
dined on bread or potatoes and animal broth ; received instruc- 
tion four hours, and labored at suitable work, for the benefit of 
the concern, five hours. To the ordinary branches of instruc- 
tion were added religious teaching, the exercises of a Sabbath- 
school, and singing. Regular food proved a powerful magnet 
to these hungry children. They received the advantages of 
steady employment, and education with it ; and returned home 
to sleep every night, carrying with them the good influences 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 323 

received, as lessons to their depraved friends. The cost aver- 
aged about six pounds sterHng each annually. By laboring 
five hours per day at net-making, and other occupations suitable 
for young children, they v^ere able to earn on the average, the 
last year reported, <£1. 10s. Id., ov about one-fourth of their 
expenses. The rest was supplied by voluntary contributions. 
Food was furnished by the House of Refuge at 2-^i. (about 
4^ cents), per day. 

. The experiment was delightfully successful. In a short time 
a girls' industrial school was established, and two others like 
the first were planted in other parts of the town. Hard- 
ly a juvenile beggar at last was to be found. Emaciated and 
filthy little ones grew plump, cleanly, and orderly, indicating a 
most pleasing physical and moral reformation. In Dundee, 
Edinburgh, Birmingham, and London, these efforts excited 
attention, and kindred institutions, variously modified by cir- 
cumstances, were established for the benefit of the same 
class. ' 

And this brings us to notice the ragged schools of London. 
Fearful as was the picture drawn of juvenile depravity in 
Edinburgh, it scarcely reaches in fullness the living one of 
this world-city. Multitudes of the young "Christian heathen" 
of this vast metropolis never enter a school or church. The 
report of one of the benevolent societies estimates their num- 
ber at one hundred thousand. Unloved, uncared-for, and fa- 
miliar with hunger, nakedness, blows, and pavement-beds, they 
wander about, the growing Ishmaelites of the city. Their 
own wants are not always their only masters. Sometimes, 
they are driven forth to maintain in idleness and dissipation 
their unnatural parents. ' 

Watch closely, and you may see them, with pale, sharpened 
faces, selling matches, and slyly begging, among the merchant 
palaces of the west end ; or peeping wistfully at the gin-shops 
in St. Giles's ; scampering suspiciously, with something under 



324 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

the arm, down the half-concealed alleys leading from Holborn 
and the Strand ; or fingering the filth for lost jewelry or money ; 
H and bending over the gutters in the by-places of the Borough 
and Lambeth. , ^ 

With ragged coats to the heels, trowsers, perhaps, to the 
knees, and shirts invisible, they sometimes scamper about their 
favorite haunts, sporting even in their misery, and yelling like 
^young imps. That little wiry fellow, with fingers that can al- 
most pick a lock, and a body that can find its way through a 
pane of glass, perhaps knows how to manage a dark lantern, 
and is apprentice to a house-breaker. His brother pursues you 
with combs (which he never uses) and trifles in the street, and 
^ in hard times " finds," or, as you would say, steals, pocket- 
handkerchiefs. His little skeleton sister, with such a sweet, 
plaintive voice, sometimes sells fruit, and. sometimes begs. 
Hunger is strangely inventive. When the tide is out, you 
may see troops of these young creatures, made desperate by 
want, busy as beavei-s, searching the mud along the margin 
of the Thames for corks and other plunder. 

Some five or six years since a few choice, self-denying 
spirits connected principally with the London City Mission, 
^ determined on making a strong effort to save these outcast 
children. They sought out their worst haunts, hired cheap 
school-rooms, selected hours in the evening, and other times 
likely to suit them, and in tones of kindness entirely new to 
them, offered to educate them for this and another world ; and 
that the vilest might not be ashamed to come, they called them 
Ragged Schools. 

The opening of one of these was often a curious scene, and 
sometimes not free from danger. These young " Arabs of the 
city" were at first ungovernable as wild horses. Sometimes 
for a freak, they brought powder, and fired it off, filling the 
place with smoke; made a rush, and blew out the lights; 
pelted one another with missiles and dirt ; or drummed at the 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 325 

windows and doors, till all was confusion. But perseverance 
and kindness conquered. As in Aberdeen, the result was 
delightful. 

In 1844 the London Ragged School Union was formed to 
encourage these efforts, and Lord Ashley, the celebrated ad- 
vocate of the Ten Hours' Bill for the' relief of the factory 
children, became one of its chief patrons. 

By the Report for 1847, it appears that* besides private 
donations, in a single year from this source alone, were raised 
upwards of three thousand dollars ; and the Society assisted 
forty-four ragged schools in different parts of London, number- 
ing nearly five thousand children. These were taught by 
some four hundred and fifty teachers, of whom three-fourths 
were voluntary and unpaid. The devotion and sacrifices of 
these teachers were indeed extraordinary. 

Many a refined lady, many a gifted youth, accustomed to 
the elegancies of life, with no recompense but their feelings, 
have not been ashamed to toil month after month amid the 
filth and vermin of these ragged scholars. 

I shall never forget a visit, in company with an excellent 
New York friend, to a ragged school in the wretched neighbor- 
hood of Jurston-street, London. 

One of the superintendents having strongly excited our 
curiosity in reference to a letter received from one of the 
pupils, I called, by invitation, on the teacher to whom it was 
addressed, for a copy of the touching and beautiful epistle I 
hold in my hand. -The possessor was a retiring female in the 
common walks of life, and obliged to toil the whole v^eary 
week ; .while her pale, thin face and slight, stooping figure, 
showed signs of feeble health. 

Yet, without the least pecuniary reward, she had regularly 
taken her accustomed long walk several times a week for halt 
a dozen years to labor in an offensive Ragged School. 

She remarked, as she handed me the letter, that the writer 



326 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

was a reckless Irish girl, and one of the most troublesome 
scholars she had ever known. 

With evident emotion her eye rested upon the piece of 
paper, as if it had been a treasure ; and, as she told her story, 
there glistened in it a tear of deep, quiet joy. It w^as her 
triumph over fruit unexpectedly springing from seed painfully 
sown. 

I have never read such a thrilling tale set forth in such child- 
like eloquence, as is contained in this letter. I regret that its 
length and the lateness of the hour, will not allow me to gratify 
some of our more serious friends with its perusal.*^ 

•Jr 'Jr 'v«* ^ ^ 

* Instead of the meagre description of the contents given in a conple of 
sentences erased from the lecture, I prefer giving the more interesting original 
in this note. The only alterations are in the pmictuation and capitals : — 

" My Dear Teacher : — It is five years since you met me in Glo'ster 
Street, and invited me to go with you to Jurston-street Sunday Evening 
School. At the first I was not willing to go, but you would not go without 
me. You said, ' Come for once :' and so I went with you. You may 
remember what a monster I was — caring for nothing. Sure you must have 
wondered what could induce me to come so regular. I do not know 
myself, unless it was to disturb the school; for as soon as I came into the 
class there could be no more order. In vain did you beg of me to attend 
to the instruction ; my heart was as hard as a stone, and as cold as ice. 
Yet nothing could have kept me from coming. Sometimes I have been 
afiaid to look if you were there ; for some of the girls used to say if I did 
go on, they were sure you would not come again. But, blessed be God ! 
you were always there, so that I never had any other teacher. During the 
two years that I was in the school, no change whatever took place in my 
character. My conduct was shameful. I do not know how you could have 
boi-ne with me with so much patience. 

" At the end of two years my parents were obliged to return to Ireland. 
Oh, my dear friend ! never shall I forget the night when I told you I was 
not coming again. How affectionately you talked to me ! If I had been 
one of the most attentive scholars in you.r class you could not have been 
more kind to me. You marked some chapters in my Bible, and begged of 
me to read them when I could not come to school ; and when you bade me 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 327 

There are many other juvenile institutions in London we 
might notice, did time permit. Should any of our friends 
present contemplate a visit to the British capital, who are in- 
farewell, it was the first time in my life that I felt any real son'ow for past 
sin. I thought I would give all the world if I might stop one month longer 
vsrith you. In the course of the week we left London. I could get no rest 
day iior night. I could think of no one else but you. One day I thought 
I would make away with myself. Hell appeared open to receive me ! Just 
as I was going to take some poison that I had prepared, I thought I heard 
you call me, and say — ' Where is your Bible V I laid down the poison and 
got my Bible, and the first place that I opened where you marked, was • 
John iii. 16 : ' God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life.' 

" Although I had so often heard that passage before, it now appeared as if 
it were the fii'st time. I turned to some other place that was marked, aud 
saw before me: 'This is a faithful saying, and -worthy of all acceptation, 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.' This 
appeared to be just my case. I kneeled down and prayed to God for the 
first time in my life. I was much comforted, I threw the poison away ; 
and from that time I found mercy, and was able to call God Abba, Father. 
I suffered much persecution from my friends, but, blessed be God ! he helped 
me through it. I knew what a sinner I had been, and therefore could pity 
and pray for them. I once nearly lost my Bible. The priest, having learn- 
ed that I had one, came and demanded it. I said I would part with my life 
first. He said it would be worse for me if I did not give it to him. One night 
when all were safe in bed, 1 got up, went down into the yard, dug a hole: 
after committing my best companion to the Lord, I laid it in the grave and 
covered it up that no one could find it. For three weeks I went every night 
for two hours to read it, being the only time I dared to look at it. At length 
I heard that a lady wanted a servant. I went to see her. She told me I 
might come as soon as T liked. I got my Bible and went at once. She 
was a member of a Christian Church. This was a mercy indeed for me. 
Three months after I became a member of the church to which she belonged. 
I am still in the same place, and a good place it is. I must also tell you that 
my father and mother have joined the same chapel nine months ago. Their 
home that used to be like a little hell, is now like heaven. It would do you 
good to see my father surrounded with fifty or sixty poor men and women, 
holding a prayer meeting on Sunday evening. Some coming five or six. 



328 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

terested in these things, I would strongly advise them to attend 
service some Sabbath morning in the chapel of the Orphan 
Asylum, in Guilford -street. The impressive cathedral service 
of the English Church is chanted, and Dr. Croly, or some 
leading popular minister, generally preaches. I think I never 
heard such angelic singing from children. 

Orphan asylums are favorite charities all over Europe. 

The largest, probably, in the v^orld, and the last institution 
we shall notice this evening, is the Orphan House at Halle, in 
Prussia. It was founded, a century and a half since, by the 
celebrated German philanthropist, Augustus Herman Francke. 
I never visited a place of the kind that appeared so interesting. 
I was courteously shown over the whole establishment, and it 
then contained, orphans and pupils included, some three thou- 
sand children. The buildings were on a very large scale, occu- 
pying both sides of a street, for some distance. Besides the 
departments for the orphans, widows, teachers, poor students, 
and the grades of Prussian schools up to the gymnasium, there 
belonged to it a Bible house, book store, dispensary, hospital, 
museum, library, and farm. 

Every thing w^as regulated like clock-work. The children 

miles, never forgetting to pour out their prayers on Jurston-street School. 
A few days ago a friend said to my father, ' You will never forget that school.' 
* Forget — oh, no, never f till my God forgets to be gracidus.' 

"Please give this two shillings and sixpence to the Bible Society, as a 
small but sincere token of my love to my Bible, which is dear to me as my 
life is. Pray remember me with many thanks to Mr. Clark and Mr. Wil- 
liams, and all the friends of the Jurston-street School. You will wonder how I 
should know how to send to you. My brother has been living in London 
till a few weeks since. I begged of him to go to the school and find you 
out. He went, w^atchecl you home, and then took the direction down, and 
brought it with him ; and I determined to write as soon as I had an 

opportunity.. Mrs. has gone to London on her way to America ; she 

will tell you any thing about me that you wish to know : she is a friend of 
my mistress. Now, my beloved friend, I must bid you farewell. God bless 
you for ever and ever, is the prayer of, Yours, sincerely." 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 329 

were cheerfully exercising in the different branches, and the 
singing of some of the classes exhibited a precision and culti- 
vation that made their music very delightful. 

On a rise of ground, at the end of the street, and overlooking 
the whole, is a fine, expressive statue of Francke, erected by 
grateful posterity, more than a century after his death. 

The history of this institution is so extraordinary, and fur- 
nishes such an instructive example of what simple goodness, 
under the most discouraging difficulties, may sometimes accom- 
plish, that we shall dwell upon it a little, for the sake of its 
admirable lesson. 

Francke was a popular minister of the Pietists, or German 
evangelical party, of the seventeenth century. After wander- 
ing from place to place, the victim of change and persecution, 
he was at last rewarded with the appointment to a professorship 
in the University of Halle, and a pastoral charge in the suburb 
of Grlauca. Entering upon his ministerial duties with great 
earnestness and success, his attention was early directed to the 
deplorable state of the surroundiog poor. His labors were 
prodigious. It was customary in Halle for the needy to visit 
the houses of the citizens, for special assistance, every Thurs- 
day. At this time it was a habit with Francke to assemble a 
roomful of beggars, and, after kindly feeding them, to exhort 
and instruct the adults, and catechise the children. He found 
them deplorably ignorant, and their condition, in the words of 
his biographer, " went to his heart." To benefit them, he had 
successively established, with suitable inscriptions, three poor- 
boxes in difierent places. After these had been in operation a 
few months, a person dropped into one of them four Prussian 
dollars, a sum amounting to, about three dollars of our money. 
It proved the seed that yielded a mighty hai^vest. Francke 
was delighted, and, even with so small a beginning, the idea of 
something permanent flashed upon his mind. " Without con- 
ferring," says he, " with flesh and blood, and acting under the 



330 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

impulse of faith, I made arrangements for the purchase of books 
to the amount of two dollars, and engaged a poor student to 
instruct the poor children for a couple of hours daily, promising 
to give him six groschen (about fourteen cents) weekly, for so 
doing, in the hope that God would, meanwhile, grant more." 
Nor was the good pastor disappointed. He appropriated the 
antechamber to his own study as the place of his charity-school, 
and commenced operations about Easter, 1695. Some of the 
townspeople sent their children, and paid a trifle weekly, to aid 
the gratuitous instruction of the charity-scholars. Encouraged 
by the success of his first undertaking, Francke was induced, 
shortly after, to commence what was afterward the Royal 
School, for more advanced pupils. His funds seemed to in- 
crease like the widow's oil; and the more he poured out the 
more came. About this time a person of rank offered him a 
donation of five hundred dollars, to assist poor students. 

A few cents weekly were at first distributed to them, but in 
keeping with the habits of the social Germans, Francke after- 
ward selected some twenty-four of the most needy, and appro- 
priated the money to giving them a plain dinner. To make one 
thing help another, he chose his charity-teachers from these 
students, and thus originated his teachers' seminary. Finding 
it impossible properly to care for his poor children out of school, 
the thought struck him one day of providing a place for keeping 
some of them as in a family, and on mentioning it, a friend funded 
a sum for the purpose, the annual interest of which amounted 
to twenty-five dollars. Four fatherless and motherless children 
were brought to him just at the moment, and he ventured to re- 
ceive them. It was the commencement of the most magnificent 
orphan asylum in the world. Yet the funds already provided 
were insufficient to maintain a single child for a year. In 
the words of its pious founder, " the orphan house was by no 
means commenced or founded upon any certain sum in hand, 
or on the assurances of persons of rank to take upon themselves 



Lecture I.^ EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 331 

the cost and charges, but solely and simply in reliance on the 
living God in heaven," Contributions, however, came gradually 
in ; apartment after apartment was addqd, till at last the site of 
a neighboring inn was purchased, and, without money to buy 
even the first materials, and trusting alone in Providence, the 
good man laid the corner-stone of a very large edifice. It is 
deeply interesting to follow the simple narrative of his German 
biographer. The neighbors sneered, and one man ofFel'ed tci be 
hanged on the building when it should be finished. 

Yet year after year, as if by magic, the vast edifice steadily 
progressed. At the commencement and end of every week the 
faithful minister assembled the workmen for prayer. Often he 
was reduced to the greatest straits for supplies, and once he 
could with difficulty purchase a couple of candles. His orphans 
sometimes ate their last loaf, and his workmen murmured for 
their wages. At these times, we are told, the good man invaria- 
bly retired to his closet, to use his own words, " with a certainty 
of being heard by Him who hears the cry of the young ravens." 
In the moment of darkest despair help always came. The post 
brought bills of exchange from some distant stranger whom he 
had never seen, an unknown hand sent a well-filled purse, or a 
messenger came, perhaps, bearing the bequest of some departed 
friend. 

Twice his enemies, envious of his fame, raised the hue and 
cry of persecution, and misrepresented him and his project to 
the government, and commissions of investigation were appoint- 
ed, which resulted in his triumphant vindication. The storms 
that shook other men but rooted him more deeply. Opposition 
but spread the fame of his novel enterprise more and more, and 
contributions at length poured in fi'om the rich and poor. 

The King of Prussia gave two thousand dollars, and a hun- 
dred thousand bricks ; a German prince dying, bequeathed the 
orphan house five hundred ducats ; and a physician in America 
sent a handsome donation in a time of the greatest need. An 



332 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

apothecary at Leipsic gave the medicines; the common hang- 
man became a contributor, and a chimney-sweep bound him- 
self to sweep the orphan house gratuitously as long as he lived. 

Thirty-four years from the time the four dollars were dropped 
in Francke's poor-box,-there was a touching scene. Tha ven- 
erable, dying minister was come to bid a last adieu to his or- 
phans. His attendants, at his desire, conveyed him in an easy 
carriage into the yard of the orphan house. What a change 
was there since he first saw the spot ! Where the inn stood, in 
the miserable suburb, thirty-five years before, were then noble 
edifices, consecrated to benevolence, where gathered daily more 
than two thousand children. How sweet must have seemed 
the music of those young voices. He had built a monument 
as a boon to posterity, prouder than the Pyramids. His dim- 
med eye rekindled with animation at beholding the blessed con- 
summation of the darling purpose of a life. The expiring lamp 
flickered brightly once more. Again and again the life-blood 
quickened in the heart of the dying patriarch, till it thrilled like 
that of a hero falling in the moment of victory. Overcome 
with his emotions, feeble as he was, we are told he lingered, 
reclining in his carriage, a whole hour, with a faltering voice 
pouring out thanks to Heaven, and fervent prayers for his or- 
phan children. Then, as if his work was finished, he returned 
home to die. 

Thousands wept ov^r his remains as over those of a near 
relative, and a whole city mourned his loss. Many generations 
have since passed, but his example remains as one of the illus- 
trious good ; the orphans of Halle still keep his birthday, and 
thousands of helpless and lonely little ones have since lived to 
bless the name of Herman Francke. 

I should have hesitated longer in making this feeble effort, 
but for the hope-of stimulating new purposes of beneficence, and 
of accomplishing some practical good. I thank you a thousand 
times for listening so kindly. To me there is a sacredness about 



Lecture I.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. ^ 333 

the whole subject. Forgive the intensity of feeling which, in 
frankness, seeks to be relieved in a few parting words of ap- 
peal. Are there any of us willing to devote ourselves anew to 
the service of the young ] Every where around, us are pleasing 
instrumentalities to woo our affection. Go into the streets on a 
lovely Sabbath morning, or enter any of our spacious temples, 
and you will see hundreds of little ones, with glad faces, led 
gently, as lambs, to these Christians folds, by hundreds and thou- 
sands of teachers who have left the happy domestic circle, or 
come, wearied with the weekly labor of the counting-house or 
the workshop, to make the Sabbath a day of religious toil in- 
stead of rest. 

On a little eminence in the outskirts of our city stands an 
excellent orphan asylum, sustained, as I am told, with difficulty, 
from year to year, by the voluntary gifts obtained principally by 
a few active and generous ladies. In this noble pile, too, are 
maintained a free Youth's Library, and gratuitous lectures and 
instruction in various useful branches. With our money or our 
services we may aid one or all of these delightful institutions ; 
or, perhaps, we may assist in transplanting to our own soil some 
of the European forms of benevolence, purposely presented for 
your choice this evening. 

Shining examples are not wanting to cheer us, of Franckes 
in an humbler sphere, even amid the mercenary strife of our 
Atlantic cities. 

Some who have been present at the exhibitions of paintings in 
this building, may recollect a sweet, kind face, the portrait of 
a patriarch, with a ruddy cheek and placid smile. They of 
middle age have doubtless often recognized it as the endeared 
image of one who came in early years to bless them. He was 
a childless old man, who went about doing good, beloved and 
revered as the friend of children. When our city was but a 
village, he led the way for years to the first Sabbath school ; 
he aided in establishing the Savings' Bank, and he lived to be 



334 APPENDIX. [Lecture!. 

enrolled as one of the founders of the institution from which 
finally arose the Brooklyn Institute. Every body loved him, 
and throngs wept over his bier as over that of a common father. 
Years after they missed him at the children's gathering, and an- 
swered his smile and hung upon his pleasant voice no more, as 
it passed from one to another, even the stranger who came, 
learned reverently to pronounce the name of Robert Snow. 

I pity the human being who can not love a child. It is an 
instinct implanted for blessed purposes. In this stormy world 
we must cling to something. We read of prisoners cruelly 
kept in some Bastile, till, in the loneliness of the dungeon, the 
heart has so yearned for companionship, that they have caressed, 
as bosom friends, the loathsome rat and crawling spider. 

Sometimes, when oppressed by bereavement or disappoint- 
ment, as we open the lattice, we may be briefly charmed by the 
caged songster that flutters a recognition, or the heart-ache may 
be lulled for a while, as we nurse some drooping bud, till petal 
after petal is unfolded, and it blushes a queenly flower. These 
are not sad, and they contrast soothingly with the unquiet breast. 
But they compare not with a cherub child. It has opening 
thoughts, beautiful as dawn, and it humanly loves. There is 
music in its infant speech more eloquent than the one, and in 
its well-turned limbs, wavy curls, glowing cheek, and speaking 
eye, more of captivating grace than the other. 

It is only when through the medium of the heart we have 
intimately known, that we can appreciate such a creature. Be- 
fore it is tainted with our full-grown, selfish nature, it returns 
our affection, as the gushing fountain gives back the cup that is^ 
poured in it, a hundred fold. In its guileless love there is none 
of the hollow mockery of deception. When you would hide 
from the false world, let it answer your sighs with smiles, and 
laughingly nestle its head upon your anxious breast; let its 
velvet hand caress your care-worn brow, and its joyous prattle 
recall the bright dreams of your own childhood; let it twine 



Lecture I,] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 



335 



round you in sadness, like a creeping flower; let its face beam 
confidingly upon yours, till it seems as the likeness of Innocence 
fresh from the sculptor, and as though the curse of Eden lingered 
ere it fell there; let you gaze upon that sinless child as chosen 
by inspiration itself as the type of the pure spirits above— and 
then you may begin fully to realize that the training of such a 
being for a happier destiny is an effort worthy of your highest 
energies. It is just in the stage of formation. It may now be 
easily molded into an image of deformity or beauty. You may 
be reminded by the poHtician that upon early influences may 
possibly very much depend the question whether it shall be a 
future Catiline or Washington— a Robespierre or Howard. But 
the eloquent voice of one from the sacred desk may reveal more. 
He may tell you that child, so impressible and so lovely, is a 
young immortal— that fair form is but the earthly casket of a 
gem that you may help to purify for a higher sphere where it 
may shine forever. 

Yet creatures Hke these are every day sinking in the abodes 
of misery around us, as pearls in the mire. Poverty is tempting 
their lips to lie, and their hands to steal. How would we feel 
-were the bright-faced ones to whom we cling so fondly, sud- 
denly doomed to be taught by hunger and cold to sin! 

There is a society in Paris, each member of which adopts 
some young criminal from the House of Correction, leads him 
back to virtue, and becomes his guardian angel for life. Let 
us go and do likewise. Let us make some erring child the in- 
heritor of all that we have of goodness. We shall then not die' 
at our deaths, but live in another generation. 

We plant young trees by our future homes in a neighboring 
cemetery ; and, as bending already, perchance to shed dew- 
drops over the remains of loved ones departed, we watch their 
growth, from year to year, with fond interest. 

But in half a century the elements may blast them, the 
storms lay them low, and our names may be forgotten. What 



336 APPENDIX. [Lecture I. 

if we should go into the lanes and alleys, and rear human weep- 
-ers, who, after the snows of many winters shall have swept over 
our graves, will be the wiser and better for us, and bring there 
the offering of tears ! The very act will make us happier 
ever after. 

A lady, residing not far from this, a few years since, rescued 
from the street a poor fatherless and motherless girl of thirteen, 
helplessly ill of disease of the heart, and with no claims but 
those of a houseless stranger, and nursed her for weeks, as if 
she had been her own child. I happened to be the medical 
attendant, and it was thus I correctly learned the story. 

One morning, before dawn, as the little sufferer, unable to 
lie down, sat half reclined in an arm-chair, she attempted, in a 
brief intermission of pain, to sing a stanza of a beautiful infant 
hymn. At the end of the first couplet, the fountain of life 
gave way, and she suddenly drooped her head upon her breast, 
and died. 

Was she not richer for life who taught that lone child the 
song that soothed a bursting heart, and told her of a land where 
she should be orphan no more ! 

If, then, we would create a well-spring of happiness in our 
own breasts — if we would write our names on the hearts of a 
future generation — if we would bestow that which may be a 
blessing- forever, let us be devoted friends of the young. 



LECTURE II. 

EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 

This evening will be devoted mainly to foreign benevolent 
institutions for adults. ~ 

If, in treating of children, in the former lecture, I may, ac- 
cording to the tastes of some, have given the best first, instead 
of last, it can not be helped. It is the order of nature. 

Your speaker labors under the disadvantage, too, of not 
having the same warm sympathies enlisted in the present 
subject. Sheep were never so interesting to him as lambs, 
nor grown people as the little wingless angels that many of 
you keep as ornaments to your firesides ; excepting, of course, 
those best friends of all mankind — the ladies. 

Perhaps some among you may have thought it strangB that a 
grave disciple of Esculapius, for years so quiet, and, apparently, 
dreaming of nothing but fever, inflammation, and 

" Calces o' fossUs, earth, and trees," 

should, all at once, become talkative. The riddle shall be 
solved in our parting words to-night. He has a darling pur- 
pose to reveal, which he has been cherishing for nearly two 
years. You may, perhaps, excuse the prosy middle, if the 
end of the story is substantially good. 

The materials from which has been condensed the matter for 
this evening's lecture might easily be made to fill a volume ; 
and, from absolute want of room, I shall be obliged to leave out 
much of the little romance of a lecture — the ornamental sen- 
tences and imagery, that constitute the flowers with which you 



338 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

are wont to have such feasts garnished. The entertainment, 
as a whole, may be something hke a German dinner, in which 
pastry and spiced dishes are followed by plain roast-beef 

Besides, there are some before me, with projecting brows 
and thoughtful faces, whom I veiy much respect, and upon 
whom there will presently' be designs. The more imaginative 
friends will, then, forgive me, if on the present occasion I 
adopt something of the plain, argumentative style likely to con- 
vince such c lutious, discriminating neighbors. These are, after 
all, the people who are apt to accomplish the most practical 
good in the world. They are the sober men of business who 
value common sense more than any other sense. They possess 
a peculiarity, attributed to that interesting variety of the 
species with a large brain and an iron will, termed a Scotch- 
man : the only way of getting at their hearts is through their 
heads. Dry as these may be to the less patient and industrious, 
they say — " Give us your facts and figures." You must always 
present them with the arithmetic of your benevolence. 

A plain, clear statement pleases them more than all the 
rhetorical flourishes in the world ; aqd they had rather have 
from a speaker the modest, but useful light of a student's lamp, 
than the most brilliant display of sky-rockets, fiery serpents, 
revolvers, stars, and suns possible. 

But, as they would say, to proceed to business : Fancy 
yourselves transported over sea and land to a fairy shore. It 
is twilight. The sun has just set beyond the -hills of Baias and 
the Elysian fields of ancient song, and seemed to melt into the 
calm, blue Mediterranean. You look upward, and fringed 
with the warmer tints of the south, there is spread over you 
the sky of Italy — so pure and ethereal, that as you gaze upon 
it, you can almost dream it to be like that of the land where 
night and clouds are not. Gently the south wind fans your 
brow from off the most lovely expanse of waters in this beauti 
ful world. Eastward is a mountain light-house crowned wit^ 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 339 

lurid fire and smoke, and encircled at its base with terraced 
vineyards, covering buried cities of old renown. And west- 
ward recede romantic hills ; while that glorious bay, so sweetly 
embosomed between, is encircled with the white walled dwell- 
ings of a crescent city. 

In the distance, toward the sea, rise fairy islands, like eme- 
ralds in molten silver. Presently the sweet chime of the 
vesper-bell from some half-concealed convent, comes over the 
calm waters. In a moment the little sails flutter idly, the oars 
of the fisherman droop, and from hundreds of lips escapes the 
response of Ave Maria. You fairly revel in the glories of the 
scene, till it seems like a remnant of the Eden-world. 

In this ecstasy, perhaps, you suddenly cast your eyes along 
the shore, in the dusk, and discover groups of dark, gipsy-looking 
creatures, chattering like magpies, with gestures like monkeys, 
and you fancy that suspicious characters have broken into your 
paradise. Contrary, however, to your notions of real imps, 
there are females among them, and they appear dreadfully 
lazy. One is sitting, perhaps, in the kangaroo style ; his neigh- 
bor is wooing the gentle sea-breeze, leaning upon his elbow ; 
and a third is studying astronomy with his back upon the sand. 
They appear to be Socialists, for the little fire you see cooking 
their supper upon the shore, seems to belong to quite a com- 
munity. 

Presently they help themselves, in the Turkish style, with 
Nature's forks. Their frugal fare consists probably of shell-fish 
and maccaroni — which, as you know, is in strings like whip- 
cord ; and they deem it an accomplishment to be able to absorb 
it in very long pieces. 

The droll antics of these children of Nature, in swallowing 
maccaroni, remind you of the efforts of ducks, with very broad 
bills, to dispose of long spires of grass. You get right among 
them, and (look out for your pocket-handkerchief!) you are 
greatly amused with their expressive pantomine and noisy 



340 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

glee, and probably think them the happiest beggars you have 
ever seen. 

The double harvests of the neighboring vast plain — the ancient 
Campania Felix — give them food, for a song ; though shabby 
as Falstaff 's soldiers, they are free from care ; the sea-shore is 
a roomy bed ; from the knee downward they rejoice in a pair 
of Esau's stockings ; and in a warm climate rags favor ventila- 
tion. 

You have been in the eastern suburb of Naples, among its far- 
famed lazzaroni. They consist, latterly, of the half-employed 
porters, scavengers, rag-gatherers, fish-venders, and all the vilest 
refuse of the population; the indolent, houseless rabble of this 
southern city, whose habits of basking in the sun, reveling in 
the open air, and love of buffoonery, have from time immemorial 
given them a distinctive character and name. ^Sometimes they 
have numbered as high as thirty or forty thodsand. Ordinarily 
they are peaceable, but experience has proved that when 
excited they may become formidable. It is said to be a 
maxim with the Neapolitan government, that three things are 
necessary to keep the lazzaroni in order — food, shows, and. 
gibbets. They briefly but very valiantly opposed the revolution- 
ary French, till the invaders adroitly managed to conciliate their 
patron, St. Januarius ; his blood miraculously liquified at the 
proper time, as usual, and the superstitious mob cried he was 
turned republican. 

When Murat became king of Naples, he wisely attempted 
to reduce their number by drafting them as soldiers. His suc- 
cessors, to the present time, have also adopted various measures 
for the same purpose, with such success, that the condition of 
this singular race is decidedly improved. They are much less 
numerous than formerly, and there is hope that some one may 
yet live to see the last of the lazzaroni. One of the chief in- 
strumentalities, for effecting these changes, has been the mag- 
nificent, " Albergo di 'Poveri^^ or Hotel of the Poor. It was 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 341 

founded nearly a century since by Charles III. There is pro- 
vision for making the young of both sexes acquainted with 
mechanical and domestic pursuits, like the institutions at Rome 
and Florence, described in the former lecture; but it differs 
from them in teaching some of the higher branches more elabo- 
rately, in the retention of the system of mutual instruction, and 
in the training of the males to the use of arms, as soldiers. The 
structure itself is very imposing, and accommodates about eight 
hundred persons. 

There are sevei-al other Italian charities, that are well worth 
attention, did our time permit. 

As early as time of the Caesars, it will be remembered that 
— owing to the expensive habits of the Roman matrons, as well 
as the drain of young men as soldiers and civilians for the 
conquered provinces — celibacy alarmingly prevailed, and im- 
perial edicts were issued to prevail upon the obstinate Roman 
bachelors to commit matrimony. In modern times — on account 
of the immense number of ecclesiastics to whom marriage is for- 
bidden — a similar state of things exists throughout Italy, and 
multitudes of young females, who would, perhaps, prefer to 
grace the domestic circle, after having stood their probation 
without a suitor, enter their numerous convents. The supply 
of these fair creatures exceeds the demand. But the Italians 
have no notion of letting too many of their flowers be 

" born to blush unseen, 
And waste their sweetness on the desert air." 

They now, however, accomplish their purpose in a different 
way. Instead of forcing their tardy bachelors by legal dis- 
abilities or fines, they tempt them to enter the state of double- 
blessedness, by offering, in addition to the fair, a golden bait. 
In many of the Italian cities, among the most popular institutions, 
are what may be termed Dowry Societies, for giving the poorer 
young females portions on their marriage. 



342 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

In Rome alone, there are thirteen of these societies, expend- 
ing yearly, in dowries, more than thirty thousand dollars; and 
more than three-fourths of all the females annually wedded, 
receive from them marriage portions. 

As you walk through the streets of some of the cities of 
Tuscany, you may perceive a man in a long, black gown, and 
with a thick hood or veil, with two small orifices for sight, com- 
pletely concealing the face, rattling a poor-box from door to 
door; or he is climbing to some attic, perhaps, in search of a 
sick or distressed being ; or a company of three or four, in 
this singular disguise, are bearing a wounded man to a hospital, 
or the bier of some lone stranger to his tomb. 

These " Companies of Mercy" are associations for the pur- 
pose of performing deeds of secret charity, and embody all 
ranks, from the- highest nobility downward. One of the most 
ancient of these societies is the Campagnia della Misericordia 
of Florence, founded in the thirteenth century. It still re- 
tains a chapel near the Duomo. The city is districted, and, as 
promptly as one of our own fire companies, this benevolent 
band, in greater or lesser numbers, as may be needed, are 
summoned by the sound of their great bell. The present Grand 
Duke of Tuscany himself is a working member of this masked 
brotherhood. 

It is much easier to prevent than to cure poverty. Except 
in cases of sickness or calamity, absolute want may be guarded 
against in two ways : by furnishing those likely to become 
dependent, with constant employment ; or by affording them 
facilities in prosperous times, to lay by something for less 
favorable seasons. 

To answer the first indication, as we have already shown, 
with the juvenile poor, houses of industry, and other insti- 
slitutions have been established in various parts of Europe. 

Of this character is the Etahlissement des Filatures of Paris, 
a charity which furnishes hemp, and pays annually near four 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 343 

thousand poor women for spinning, and provides looms and em- 
ployment to one hundred and sixty weavers. Such also are the 
" charitable work-rooms" at Antwerp, Ghent, and other cities 
of Belgium, where the industrious poor are secured employ- 
ment. 

I remember to have been much interested in a Freiwillig 
Arhcits Anstalt, or Voluntary Labor Institution, of Vienna. 

The principal employments were spinning, weaving, and the 
making of clothes and shoes. Beds \vere pro^dded, and the 
more elderly and destitute females were permitted, if they 
chose, to lodo^e in the establishment durino: the winter. 

In the capital of an inland fertile empire, supplied by the 
herds of Galicia and the gi'anaries and vineyards of Hungary, 
living might be expected to be cheap; but it will perhaps 
excite surprise to find that these poorer Viennese, with their 
families, keep plump and cheery on eight or ten kmutzers 
(about eight cents) per day. 

To answer the second of the above indications, and en- 
courage thrift and economy among the lower classes of Eu- 
ropean poor, many varieties of savings' institutions exist 

The great Savings' Bank of Paris ( Caisse d^ Epargne et de 
Prevoyance ) has ten branches throughout the city ; and, from the 
support of a foundation, performs its office for the poor almost 
gratuitously. It receives deposits in sums of from one franc 
(about 18| cents) to two thousand francs. In eight years from 
its establishment, in 1818, it only received 24,930,000 francs. 
Latterly its business has increased so that on the 1st of January, 
1845, there w^as due to 173,515 persons the sum of 112,061,945 
francs, bearing interest at 3f per cent. There are in France, 
nearly four hundred savings' banks. 

In some of the provinces of Belgium these savings' insti- 
tutions under the name of Caisses de Prevoyance, accommodate 
themselves to the infinitesmal gains of the poorest, and assume 
a peculiar social aspect. Borrowing the idea from the miners 



344 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

of Germany, they have instituted little savings' banks for the 
benefit of different trades and occupations, so that the linen 
weavers, sailors, laborers, schoolmasters, and even the fisher- 
men, have their separate organizations. 

Those who have never closely observed the experiment vi^ill 
be surprised to find how much the disheartened poor may be 
sometimes encouraged in this way, and the comfortable sums 
which steady perseverance, even wdth very small gains, will 
often accumulate. 

Happening to allude to some topic of this kind one day, 
in conversation with a Prussian fiiend, I was referred for in- 
formation to the minister of a very populous but poor parish, 
in the suburbs of Berlin. The fame of the good man w^as 
spread over the city ; and, in addition to attending to the spir- 
itual wants of the needy, he had instituted a delightful con- 
trivance for improving their temporal condition. Having with 
him a number of students in theology, he prevailed upon them 
to assist him in managing a kind of penny savings' society 
( Spargesellschaft), for the poor of his -parish. 

Every one who deposited, even the niost trifling amount, 
became a member, Both depositors and receivers kept books. 
The smallest sums were received, and the average amount was 
about five silver groschen, or ten cents of our money. Yet m. 
this small way, in one of the poorest parishes of Berlin, from 
April to November, were deposited $4000. Small premiums 
were given to those poor who managed to save something i-eg- 
ularly ; and on the day for depositing the good minister fre- 
quently assembled them, and addressed them on subjects de- 
signed to improve. - 

Some of these savings' societies in Berlin go further, and not 
only receive the earnings of the poor, but expend them to the 
best advantage. At the seasons when flour, meat, -potatoes, 
and fuel are cheapest, they buy in quantities, at wholesale, 
store up, and then answer the drafts of the industrious laborers, 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 345 

who have depositetl, in provisions, at cost price, and generally 
much below the current winter rate. 

The condition of the poor in Prussia is greatly ameliorated 
by the free education which the state so carefully provides for 
the children of the humblest peasant, and the neglect of which 
is made a crime. 

I remember being struck with the peculiar kindness and 
inoffensiveness of the lowest poor in Prussia, and, indeed, all 
over Germany. Their way of lodging, as you meet them at 
the smaller country inns, while traveling into the interior, is 
rather grotesque. 

Arriving, perhaps, at ten o'clock in the evening, you find the 
travelers' room ornamented with numerous long beer-glasses, and 
longer pipes attached to broad people, with queer dresses and 
little caps. Presently the host calls out, " Beds or straw, gentle- 
men V Then comes the crisis of distinction in society. You 
are with the minority, perhaps, for it is aristocratic for the 
wandering peasant to aspire to a bed. Lingering a little, you 
may see a few bundles brought in, and, arranged upon the floor. 
A few go to bed, and the rest go to straw. Before retiring up- 
stairs, you may mutter — 

" Man wants but little here below, 
Nor wants that little long." 

There are some classes of European poor, whose occupation 
gives them certain marked peculiarities, which merit a particu- 
lar description. Such are the silk-weavers of Lyons. Situated, 
as you are aware, in the midst of a fertile country, favorable to 
its production, and at the junction of two navigable rivers, this 
second city of France is the great emporium of the trade in silk. 
Unlike that of cotton or wool, its manufacture is canied on, in 
a domestic way, by master-workmen, each owning from two to 
half a dozen looms, worked, perhaps, by the wife, children, and 
apprentices, assisted by two or three journeymen (compagnons)^ 



346 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

all crowded, for the sake of economy, into two or three small 
apartments, the filthy home of the master. The unwroaght silk 
and the patterns are furnished by the silk-merchants (fahricans)^ 
and the orders are executed by these head-workmen, or chefs 
d* atteliers. 

In good times, by working from twelve to eighteen hours a 
day, the best journeyman can earn from thirty to near forty 
cents of our money ; and food is so abundant, that he is boarded 
and lodged by the master for half a franc, or not quite ten 
cents, per day. They are an improvident race, however, and in 
times of distress, when work is scarce, they often suffer fear- 
fully. Their privations, filthy habits, and constant toil in close 
apartments, give these silk- weavers a sickly, dwarfish appearance. 

I never saw so many victims of scrofula and deformity to- 
gether, as in a visit to a hospital in Lyons. It is stated that- 
half the young men of the city are exempt from military serv- 
ice, on account of low stature or infirmity. 

I have a vivid recollection of my first walk through those 
parts of the city inhabited by the silk- weavers. It was a gloomy 
day, presenting a vile compound of rain, smoke, and fog. 
Presently I became bewildered in a labyrinth of filthy streets, 
so narrow that, in clear weather, the sky must have been but a 
blue stripe above ; the windows, each of which was probably 
the breathing aperture of a family, looked dismal as if the blessed 
sunlight had never strayed there ; and the houses, so vast and 
high, had a dingy, dark hue, as if they were in mourning. Thin 
forms, with hollow cheeks, glided through the mist. There is 
enough of sadness in the visages of the poor of the smaller 
towns and open country, even while their features exhibit lin- 
gering traces of the freshness that shows that the air of heaven 
is not denied them ; but the pale, corpse-like faces of the needy 
of manufacturing cities, the haggard expression that, at a glance, 
tells of want, vice, and herding in loathsome abodes, will often 
excite a deeper shudder. 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 347 

Barely repaid at the best of times, and affected by every ad- 
verse commercial change, the thirty thousand silk looms of 
Lyons often ply amid deep distress. Of the various classes of 
operatives, none, perhaps, are more miserable than they who 
are thus toiling to clothe the rich. Little dream the fair patrons 
of their beautiful fabrics that, like the imaginary palaces of the 
Italian poet, they have been created amid scenes of loathsome 
suffering. 

The public charities of Lyons are, happily, in keeping with 
its numerous poor. 

One of the most extensive of these is the Hospice de la Charite, 
which, in addition to receiving in separate departments three or 
four other classes of the needy, accommodates some four hun- 
dred of the helpless aged. 

The French pay marked respect to gray hairs, even in pov- 
erty, and one of the peculiarities of their benevolent economy 
in Paris, Lyons, and all the larger cities, is the maintenance of 
separate comfortable retreats for the needy who are rendered 
infirm by old age. The establishment for this class at Lyons 
hardly rivals in neatness the kindred institutions at the Salpe- 
triere and Bicetre at Paris. Males and females are in separate 
divisions. The inmates are commonly above seventy years. 
They are not obliged to labor, but are permitted, if they choose, 
to while away their time in some light employment, for the pur- 
pose of earning themselves, in their old age, additional comforts 
and luxuries. 

It may be interesting briefly to notice here the different poor- 
systems of those countries where the subject has most attracted 
the attention of the government. 

At the commencement of the first revolution in France the 
Constituent Assembly entertained the visionary idea of extirpa- 
ting poverty, and passed a law in 1790 for the establishment of 
charitable workshops [atteliers de cliarite) and places for reliev- 
ing the poor [depots de mendicite), but left all other benevolent 



34» APPENDIX. [Lectxjrk II. 

institutions untouched. In the year II. of the Republic, the 
Convention, in their wild desire for change, overthrew the whole 
poor-system, suppressed all charitable organizations, and seized 
upon their revenues. It was declared at the same time, how- 
ever, that the support of all needy citizens was the duty of the 
State, and they were permitted to apply directly to the civil au- 
thorities for relief, at the expense of the public revenue of the 
place in which they resided. This spoliation of public charities 
continued till 1795, when partial restitution was made. The 
successive governments of Napoleon and the Bourbons endeav- 
oi"ed to heal the wounds in the body politic, and recognized the 
principle of the duty of the State to provide for the poor. But 
at the same time they encouraged voluntary benevolent associa- 
tions. In 1834, the government of Louis Philippe organized a 
general board of inspection for all the charities of the kingdom, 
to which even private societies were obliged to report. Each 
department or city of France provides for its own poor. In the 
towns this is usually effected through the octrois, or duties on 
provisions and the like, levied on entering the gates, and by a 
tax on theatres and public amusements. 

The municipal poor-organization of Paris may serve as an 
example of the rest. 

In walking through the streets you may notice over some en- 
trance the w^ords " Btireau de Bienfaisance'^ There is one of 
these benevolent offices in each of the twelve arrondissements of 
the city. They are under the supervision of the General Coun- 
cil of Hospitals, and the local management of the city authorities 
of the district, assisted by the clergy, twelve managers, the com- 
missaries for the poor, and a certain number of "Ladies of 
Charity." Most of the relief is dispensed at the houses of the 
poor. It consists mainly of bread, meat, fuel, clothing, medi- 
cines, and free professional attendance upon the sick. Besides, 
there are granted monthly in money, three francs to those who 
are palsied in two limbs, five francs to those w'ho are blind or 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 349 

are upwards of seventy-five years old, and eiglit francs to those 
wlio are turned eighty. 

The poor of Paris number nearly a hundred thousand, and 
the expenditure in relief at their homes, on the above system, 
amounted in 1844, to w^ithin a trifle of a million and a half 
francs. 

Some of the peculiarities of the Parisian poor are striking. 
On fete days you may see them, merry as lazzaroni, gather- 
ing in a ring round the marvelous exhibitions of Punch and 
Judy in the Champs Elysees, or laughing wildly at the 
tumblers in a penny show. 

But the place to see them in their glory is outside the city 
walls on a fine holiday. In consequence of the octroi, or duty 
on every thing entering the city, eatables and wine are here 
much cheaper. Booths, stands, amusements, and low eating 
and drinking places are on a corresponding cheap scale ; and 
for eight or ten cents the artisan may have a dinner with wine, 
and quite a revel. Aristocratic people, who wish to hurt the 
reputation of the place, say that useful animal, the horse, aids 
greatly in these feasts; but if this is true, it is no more than 
military people have often tasted for glory. The science of 
French cookery for the poor is really wonderful. 

They tell you in Paris a rather tough story, of a huge pot 
boiling somewhere over in the Faubourg St. Martin, filled with 
choice bits of flesh, of different sizes, gathered from various 
sources, where by staking two sous (not quite two cents), you 
may get your dinner in a sort of soup lottery. A large iron 
fork lies across the mouth of the huge cauldron, and each pay- 
ment gives you one strike. You may fish up meat for a din- 
ner, or, like all risky adventurers in this world, you may come 
off with nothing. It is said, once upon a time, some hungry 
mortal, with a vigorous thrust, brought up on the end of the 
fork the front of a soldier's cap ; the police came and searched, 
but the owner was not to be found. 



350 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

The females of the lower classes go without hats, and wear 
little gauze head-dresses ; and the men rejoice in a loose outside 
garment, termed the Mouse. _ 

Gentlemen are kept by the guard from entering the garden 
of the Tuileries in blouses ; they are generally blue in color ; 
and the blue-shirt race are as distinct in their character in 
Paris, as are the blue-stocking community in this country. 

The blouse is a loose, cool garment, corresponding in pattern 
exactly with what in the West is termed a hunting sliirt ; and, 
for aught I know, may have been originally invented on a warm 
afternoon by the mother of Nimrod. 

As bordering upon France, and resembling it in its charitable 
economy, we naturally turn to Belgium. So numerous and 
miserable are its poor, that it has been termed the Ireland of 
the continent. I remember being struck with the number of 
ragged children and beggars in the neighborhood of Brussels ; 
and on inquiring, of a Belgian traveling companion, the wages 
of the adult laborer in the fields, he mentioned a sum amount- 
ing to about eight cents of our money per day. Including a 
fraction not fair claimants, who are so on account of certain 
immunities, one-fourth of the inhabitants of the city of Brussels 
are said to be inscribed on the poor-list. 

Fortunately, when Belgium was added to France in the 
time of Napoleon, the revenues of the benevolent institutions 
escaped confiscation ; while the French system, with some im- 
provements, v/as introduced. The provident Dutch govern- 
ment, on gaining possession, established agricultural colonies 
in the neighborhood of Antwerp and other places. Nor 
have the poor been neglected by the administration of 
Leopold. 

Voluntary charitable societies are encouraged, as in France, 
and simply required to forward their accounts for inspection ; 
a Bureau de Mendicite has been established in every commune ; 
and besides special grants to particular districts in seasons of 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 3.51 

distress, the annual appropriation for the poor by the Belgian 
legislature, is usually from ten to twelve millions francs. 

In 1843, the Chambers granted two hundred thousand francs 
to found nursery establishments for the infant children of manu- 
facturing towns, similar to the crecJies of Paris; manual labor 
schools for the youth of both sexes ; children's hospitals, and 
kindred institutions. 

Except England, perhaps in no country has so much, in pro- 
portion been expended upon the poor as Holland. 

At the close of the war in which the United Provinces 
achieved their independence of Spain, a great many rich pos- 
sessions, previously the property of the church, were confisca- 
ted, and applied to purposes of public charity. 

Benevolent institutions, richly endowed, at length existed for 
every class of the needy, and for the relief of almost every con- 
ceivable form of suffering. So well managed were they, as to 
be held up, by Cuvier, as examples to the world. These, for- 
tunately, were respected during the occupation by the French, 
and escaped by being curtailed of one-third of their revenues. 

No government was ever more benign to the poor than the 
succeeding one of William I. of the Netherlands, from 1814 
to 1820. It improved and stimulated existing charities, co- 
operated with private benevolence, and supplied any deficiency 
by local taxation. 

The consequence of this peculiar train of circumstances has 
been to make the poor of Holland more comfortable than in 
other parts of Europe, and to make the provision for them very 
complete. Yet with the good effected and the comfort afforded 
has been mingled something of the evil of lessening the neces- 
sity of industry among the poor, and of encouraging pauper- 
ism. By recent statistics, collated, apparently, with care, it 
appears that every ninth person in Holland is a regular pauper; 
and the whole number occasionally assisted by charity amounts 
to the startling per centage of more than one-fifth of the whole 



352 APPENDIX. __ [Lecture IL 

population. The annual expense of the poor exceeds twenty 
millions of florins.* - -^ 

But this heavy burthen has had, at least, one good effect : it 
has turned the attention of the patient and persevering Dutch 
to one of the most successful experiments for entirely reforming 
the poor, and diminishing their number, ever tried. 

The Dutch General Van den Bosch, while serving in the 
East, purchased an estate in the Island of Java, and there 
learned from a thriving mandarin, his neighbor, how to make 
the poorest soil richly productive by careful manuring, so that, 
on leaving the island, his estate sold for six times its former 
cost. 

Returning to his native country, his eye rested on some of 
the level wastes, covered with moss and sand, in some parts, 
along the sea-shore, of Holland ; and, with the heart of a 
patriot, upon these utterly barren spots he proposed to make 
the idle and degraded poor happy and thriving citizens. The 
weight of his character and his arguments prevailed. In the 
year 1818, a " Charitable Society," with twenty thousand sub- 
scribers, was formed to carry out his plans, of which members 
of the royal family became patrons. 

A large tract of barren heath, in the Province of Drenthe, in 
North Holland, was purchased, and divided into lots of three 
acres for each poor family. Clothes and provisions, for a time, 
were furnished ; snug dwellings erected ; a cow and pig and a 
plentiful supply of manure were advanced, on unlimited credit. 
In honor of one of its princely patrons, the settlement was 
named Frederiksoord. The society received paupers, at a cer- 
tain low rate, from every town and parish, and installed them 
as tenants, with the privilege of easy purchase. 

It may naturally be conceived that the early training of such 
a vagabond set, often the very sweeuings of the streets of large 

* Algememe Zeitung, 1846. 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 353 

cities, to be industrious farmers, was a difficult task. Many 
had never touched a spade before in their lives, and were about 
as ignorant of agriculture as the cow and pig that were given 
them. But the society persevered. The uninformed were in- 
structed in their new pursuits ; a system of manuring and rota- 
tion of crops was introduced ; strict discipline was maintained ; 
and, finally, rewards and medals for the well-behaved were 
instituted, and the refractory were punished by being sent to 
earn their living by forced labor in the fields and workshops of 
the neighboring penal settlements of Veenhuizen and Ommer- 
sclians. When there was no field labor, other occupations 
were furnished, so that all were fully employed ; and at the end 
of the day, each colonist repaired to the public store, and re- 
ceived his wages, not in money, but such necessaries as he 
required. The enterprise, being a charitable one, never yielded 
any pecuniary profit to the managers ; but it succeeded beyond 
all expectation in completely regenerating many thousand poor. 
Their crops were luxuriant ; they soon became happy and 
contented ; and some rose to the possession of wealth. It 
was my privilege to be intimate with a young physician, who 
was the brother of one of the devoted clergymen sent to labor 
among these colonists, and I learned that they were well sup- 
plied with churches and schools. After thirty years' trial, the 
plan is in more vigorous operation than ever, and is now taken 
under the special protection of the government. 

The knowledge gathered by a philanthropist on the sands of 
Java, has produced a harvest in his own country that will ever 
be a blessing. It has converted a dreary solitary waste to an 
immense garden dotted over with cottages surrounded with fruit 
trees and flowers ; multitudes who were once houseless beg- 
gars are now gathering in pleasant homes, and hopefully 
striving for a happier destiny. 

England was the first country which, by a system of tax- 
ation, obliged the other classes to maintain the poor, As 



354 APPENDIX. [Lecture IL 

early as 1602 was passed the celebrated statute of Elizabeth, 
which by the imposition of poor-rates compelled each parish 
to support its own paupers, and thus laid the foundation of the 
English poor-law system. In succeeding reigns the needy 
gradually became very numerous ; multitudes of able-bodied 
paupers were maintained out of doors ; abuses of various kinds 
crept in; the guardians sometimes wasted the funds in good 
dinners; and in various ways the burden was increased, till, in 
1831, the poor-tax in England alone, amounted to the enor- 
mous sum of forty-five millions of dollars. It appeared by 
the report of a committee, that so grievous was the pressure 
of the poor-rate, that in some parishes the finest lands, in con- 
sequence, became untenantable. 

In 1834, the Poor-law Amendment Act was passed, rad- 
ically reforming the whole poor-economy, intrusting its regula- 
tion to a central board of three Poor-law Commissioners, and 
introducing a more strict workhouse system. A saving of ten 
millions of dollars annually and many improvements were the 
result. 

But the new plan of economizing by dividing families and 
separating husbands and wives, created loud complaints from 
the English press. Much discretion in these matters is left, 
however, to the local guardians. 

I must do the justice to say that, in spite of previous preju- 
dices, I was rather agreeably disappointed in finding the En- 
glish workhouses better than I expected. They are gen- 
erally cleanly kept, and their inmates receive a fair supply of 
wholesome food. In many respects they resemble our own 
almshouses. Latterly some ameliorations have been made in 
the system. 

The local management in each parish is intrusted to a Board 
of Guardians, varying in number with the population, and 
chosen yearly by the rate payers. Th«se fix the amount of 
annual assessment for the support of the poor, and regulate all 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 355 



the internal affairs of each workhouse. In the parish in which 
I resided for some time in London, the poor-rate the last year 
amounted to two shillings and six-pence sterling in the pound 
of assessed valuation. A medical officer is appointed to each 
workhouse, as are also teachers to instruct; the children. Va- 
rious contrivances exist for furnishing the paupers, as far as 
possible, with employment. 

It is a sign of the times, creditable to the humanity of 

"the age, to observe that within the last few years scarcely a 

session of Parliament has' passed without some important 

movement whose professed object has been to benefit the 

poor. 

More or less, the corn-law and free-trade agitation, the penny 
postage measure, the Ten Hours' Bill, the health of towns 
discussion, and the education question, have partaken of this 
character. 

One of the first peculiarities that attract your attention on 
becoming a resident of London or any large English city, is 
the necessity of constant cleansing. The burning of such an 
enormous quantity of coal in a damp atmosphere fills the air 
with motes or globules of a substance like lamp-black. It 
tinges the houses and every thing of a. sombre hue. You may 
stand before the glass a perfect Adonis in the morning, and 
regard your own beautiful self as prim as soap and water and 
starch can make you, and returning after a few hours, you find 
your " human face divine " sadly soiled. There ! right be- 
tween those two pretty wicked eyes of yours, and just on the 
end of your blushing proboscis, are a couple of black spots, as 
if with the sweep of a camel's hair pencil, you had commenced 
begriming yourself for an Indian war dance. They are merely 
the remains of a couple of globules of the chemical product of 
coal and fog, magnified by your finger — a little distilled Ethio- 
pian, the real essence of darkness. 

Of course the laboring poor of these cities, have little taste 



356 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

or time for purifying, and look rather sooty. They are not 
smoked and dried, but smoked and moistened. So filthy are 
the habits of the lowest class, that one of the classical English 
terms for the beggarly multitude is the great unwashed. 

To benefit their health and add to their comforts, a benevo- 
lent Act was passed to establish baths for the poor. In addition 
t© the privilege of bathing, at certain hours, in the Serpentine, 
free, the laborer can now, in establishments for the purpose, in 
different parts of London, obtain a warm bath for two pence, 
and a cold bath for a penny. 

Not only are the poor washed but they are cheaply aired. 
To favor this class, all the railroads in the kingdom have been 
obliged by law to run what is termed a government train twice 
a day, carrying passengers in plain, covered cars, at the legal 
rate of one penny per mile; and little iron steamers on the 
Thames, carry crowds of passengers for some distance back- 
ward and forward, every day, at a penny each, and upon 
holidays at half-price. 

In 1838, the British Parliament, passed an Act for the intro- 
duction, on the English plan, of a poor-law for Ireland. This 
has been modified two or three times since. But in the dis- 
turbed state of the country, and with such a frightful amount 
of pauperism, it has been impossible to try fairly any regular 
system. The famine came like a whirlwind at last, and over- 
whelmed every thing. Ireland, which before had been noto- 
rious for her civil commotions, then attracted the eyes of the 
world by the greatest spectacle of suffering in modern times. 
Parliament, as you are aware, promptly granted her starving 
poor fifty millions of dollars, and help and sympathy came from 
every island and continent of the civilized earth. 

Then occurred an event which history will doubtless treasure 
as an honor to the species, and as one of the earlier harbingers 
of the period when war shall desolate no more. A ship of war 
was seen entering the beautiful Cove of Cork, pierced for the 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 357 

murderous artillery, and bearing aloft the stars and stripes of a 
distant nation, that, but a few months before, had threatened 
battle. But she came to bless instead of to curse ; in place of 
the munitions of death,^she was freighted with bread to give life 
to famishing thousands ; and as she struck the shore, it thrilled 
the hearts of a nation. 

During the height of the famine, violent religious and political 
differences were measurably forgotten. In the local commit- 
tees, appointed all over the country, to rescue the starving and 
dying, the Protestant minister and the Catholic priest, the land- 
lord and tenant, the Orangeman and Repealer, and even the 
hated middle-man, worked harmoniously to save. 

As one of the wonders of civilization in the nineteenth centu- 
ry, the Indian corn of the valley of the Mississippi supplied the 
place of the potato On the other side of the Atlantic. 

My own visit to Ireland happened to be toward the end of 
the last summer, when the worst of the distress was past. 

To judge of the better traits of any nation, we must take them 
at home upon their own soil. And those who have shared the 
generous hospitality of the Irish gentiy in Dublin, or at their 
seats in the country, and who have examined Irish character as 
developed by the advantages of wealth and education, will join 
with me in saying that, mentally or physically, there are no finer 
specimens of the human race than an Irish lady or gentleman. 
I speak disinterestedly, for I have not the honor of a drop of 
Hibernian blood in my veins. The Irish have a tradition that they 
are descended from the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, and really 
as you stroll through Phcenix Park in Dublin, toward sunset, 
and witness the fair creatures w^iirling past you on horseback, 
you might almost fancy them female descendants of Queen Dido. 

But the contrast of the illy fed, ragged beings, prostrated by 
generations of poverty, who flock in myriads from the little clay 
cabins of the open country is really startling. Perhaps I saw 
them at a disadvantage, but they seemed to have sunk into list- 



358 ... APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

less, dogged despair, with no forecast or energy left. It was 
harvest time, and yet hundreds of able-bodied men seemed loi- 
tering idly about their cabins. 

Swarms of poor women and children came- begging and dis- 
pensing blessings, at a penny each, in that copious dialect of 
our mother tongue, as distinctive to us, as was the Ionic or 
Doric to the ancient Greeks — the rich Hibernian. In one des- 
olate country -place, a number of poor creatures were sitting by 
the side of a road, eating, from wooden dishes, government stir- 
about, made of Indian meal, salt, and water. I had the curios- 
ity to get out of the conveyance, and go into a little temporary 
shelter, where a couple of functionaries were boiling it in a huge 
iron kettle, and doling it out in rations. In Dublin, also, a friend 
and I made a pilgrimage to one of M. Soyer's famous soup 
kitchens. There is a capital story told of an ingenious soldier 
foraging, who brought a stone, cleanly washed, to a simple 
countrywoman, and excited her wonder to the highest pitch, by 
showing her how to make what he termed stone soup. First, he 
loaned a pot and water to boil the stone in ; then he asked for salt, 
butter, and vegetables ; a little meat, as he said, just to " color" 
it, and, finally, bread, and a spoon to eat his savory dish. French 
science, in the hands of M. Soyer, equally astonished the com- 
mittees of Dublin ; and, by means of very simple apparatus, he 
managed to afford nutriment to thousands, which, from its abun- 
dance and extraordinary cheapness, deserved to be called famine 
soup. 

You are, probably, aware that, so heavy have been the ills 
of poverty upon the Irish peasant, that even in his prosperous 
days he is often compelled to make the pig, that useful animal 
that pays his rent, to occupy the same position in his household 
as the horse in the tent of the Arab — to be the pet of the 
family, share in fireside joys ; and, with such increased social 
advantages, to become the most amiable and interesting grunter 
in the world. 



Lecture .11. ] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 3r>9 

Yet this degradation is purely artificial. The genius of her 
people, capable alike of the most brilliant wit or eloquence — 
the fertility of her soil, teeming with rich vegetation, till its 
deep green has given her the name of the Emerald Isle — are 
such, that the stranger who has mingled, at the social board, 
with her warm-hearted children, or wandered amid the romantic 
glens of Wicklow, or the fairy scenes of Killarney, must have 
the most exalted idea of her natural capabilities. 

Passing from Ireland to Scotland, let us delay a moment 
to examine a truly benevolent institution established in Glas- 
gow, mainly to extend shelter to the crowds of poor from the 
former country, who sometimes inundate the streets, in search 
of employment. I refer to the Glasgow Night Asylum for the 
Houseless. It is an extensive new edifice, supported by volun- 
tary contributions, admirably provided with baths, and a fine 
walk on its flat roof, on which the females in the industrial de- 
partment take the air. As in the similar estabfishments in 
London and elsewhere, the applicant is not sent supperless to 
bed, but a supply of plain food is granted. Within the last 
year it has furnished twenty-eight thousand free nights' lodgings, 
one-fourth of which have been to children. 

The poor-economy of Scotland is purely voluntary. Many 
years since Dr. Chalmers, in his usual vigorous style, instituted 
a comparison between the English poor-rate plan, then greatly 
abused, and the Scottish pai'ochial system of voluntary relief, 
much to the advantage of the latter. The heart of that truly 
great man, it is well known, was warmly interested in the 
welfare of the poor, and there is much weight in his reasoning. 

Establishing a public institution like a poor-house, he de- 
clares to be " erecting a signal of invitation, and the voluntary, 
and self-created poor will rush in to the exclusion of the 
modest and unobtrusive poor, who are the genuine objects 
of charity." Voluntary benevolence, he asserts, draws no 
dependence with it, is not counted upon like a legal charity ; 



3G0 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

brings the eye of a neighbor to discriminate between the 
worthy and unworthy, makes the different orders of society 
dehghtfuUy acquainted, diminishes the numbers of the needy 
by inspiring self-reHance, and benefits the hearts and heads of 
the rich by kindly intercourse with the poor. 

All this is doubtless true of religious and educated Scotland, 
but the social ills of England and Ireland are of a deeper 
character. So numerous are their poor, that it may be doubted 
whether tho divine principle of love to our neighbor, unaided 
by the strong arm of the law, would be sufficient to prevent 
starvation. Men were no more created to pine and perish 
with cold and hunger, while the blessings of a common 
Heavenly Father are shared in abundance by the rich around 
them, than they were born to commit suicide. If free-will 
charity will not save them, the law must. 

In concluding this hasty review of different national systems 
of relief for the poor, I may, perhaps, be indulged in the practi- 
cal remark, that in this country we appear to need as yet both 
voluntary and legal provision. Even in our populous cities we 
have exceedingly few American poor. None who know the 
country, and are able to work, need be so long. A few 
widows, orphans, and sick, constitute nearly all who are native 
born. The great mass, then, are foreigners in distress, often 
differing from the bulk of our population in language, religion, 
and habits, and therefore naturally unfitted to take the deepest 
hold upon the sympathies of our people. But they have only 
followed the footsteps of our forefathers. With -an instinct 
that clings to life, they have fled, perhaps, from starvation and 
pestilence. They are our brethren — children of the same Father 
of Mercies — and can we, as Christians, let them die, untended, 
in our streets ] 

For these, then, private charity is insufficient, and we need 
alms-houses and legal provision. But the more the redeeming 
influence of the warm, discriminating charity of voluntary 



Lecture IL] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 361 

societies, or of individuals, can encroach upon the cold, me- 
chanical provision of the law, the better. 

The last benevolent agency I shali^^escribe this evening, 
and one whose advantages impressed me very strongly, is that 
of charitable pawning establishments. I regret I have so little 
time left ; and for reasons I shall presently mention, I beg your 
very earnest attention to this subject. 

If my memory serves me, the origin of these institutions 
may be traced to Florence, in the fourteenth century. The 
finest in the world now existing are, perhaps, those of Paris 
and Vienna. They are pure charities. In neither of these 
capitals are private pawnbrokers allowed. Through the 
courtesy of Count Rambuteau, Prefect of the Seine, in fur- 
nishing a written special permission to visit the public charities 
of Paris, and the kind attentions of M. Sauvee, the Director, I 
was enabled to make a somewhat minute investigation into the 
economy of the Mont de Piete, or great Pawning Institution 
of that city. To the urbanity of the latter gentleman, I was 
also indebted for very full explanations, and a large roll of 
documents on the subject. Those who may naturally be dis- 
satisfied with so meagre a sketch of this and other matters, 
will, I have reason to hope, in the future, have-^an opportunity 
of consulting the original papers, reports, and regulations of 
various European charities referred to in these lectures, through 
the liberality and politeness of our friends of the City Library. 

The 'Mo7it de Piete was established in 1777, with the ex- 
clusive privilege of loaning four-fifths of the value of gold and 
silver articles, and two-thirds of the value of other effects. From 
the moderate profits which, for safety, it is obliged to realize to 
meet contingencies, all that can be spared yearly is returned to 
the poor again, through the medium of the hospitals, which, by 
an admirable arrangement, it thus helps to support. It borrows 
whatever money it needs at three per cent., and being entirely 
a benevolent institution, and having the advantage of immense 



I 1 



362 APPENDIX. [Lecture IL 

capital and the be&t business facilities, it is enabled, after pay- 
ing the cost of storage, insurance, and the salaries of the clerks 
and officers, to loan money on articles pledged by the poor 
at the low rate of nine per cent, per annum. Debts can be 
extinguished gradually, if preferred, in payments as small as 
one franc at a time. If the articles pledged are unredeemed at 
the end of a year, they are liable to be sold at auction, and the 
surplus is carefully returned to the boiTOwer, on application 
within three years, or after that time it goes to aid the hos- 
pitals. The central establishment is in an immense building 
fronting on two streets. It has three dependencies, and twenty- 
three commissioners in different parts of the town, with branch 
offices, in which a slight additional per centage is required. 
It employs about three hundred persons, and its business is con- 
stantly increasing. Its loans in a single year have amounted to 
nearly five millions of dollars, on about a million and a half of 
articles. 

The Versatz Amt, of Vienna, is a similar magnificent insti- 
tution, established to benefit the poor, in 1707, by the Emperor 
Joseph I. It has a capital of more than a million of dollars, 
and resembles the Mont de Piete in most of its provisions, 
except that, from certain advantages in capital and privileges; 
it is enabled to loan to the poor, on effects pledged, at as low 
as five and six per cent, per annum. It also sells at its auctions, 
when desired, any unpledged articles, brought for the purpose, 
at a charge of five per cent. Half the annual profits of the 
concern goes to increase its capital, and the remainder to pur- 
poses of charity. In addition to its capital, it receives loans 
when offered. 

The confidence of the public in these institutions is un- 
bounded. No one hesitates to buy of them, and you often see 
respectable shops with articles marked as coming from these 
places. Multitudes who would, from strong prejudice, never 
enter a private pawnbroker's shop, hesitate not to take advan- 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 363 

tage of their facilities. No one ever suspects them of unfair- 
ness. All connected with them, with whom I conversed, 
seemed strongly convinced of their beneficial character. I 
was assured that they had a direct tendency to lessen the 
temptation to forgery and theft. In Vienna and Leipsic, in- 
deed, when any articles are stolen, a description is immediately 
forwarded, a look-out is kept for a month, and if received after 
this warning, in the latter city, the establishment is the loser. 
Private concerns, though in reality a benefit and a safety 
valve to the tempted poor, can never accommodate them so 
moderately. 

Finally, in addition to other recommendations we have not 
time to state, there may be briefly enumerated three great ad- 
vantages connected with them ; their opportunity for invest- 
ment, yielding a moderate but sure interest, and answering the 
purpose of a savings' bank; the consideration that sooner or 
later they expend in public charity all their profits ; and lastly, 
their influence in opportunely and secretly aiding the needy in 
temporary want, preserving their independence and self-respect, 
and preventing thousands from losing caste, and becoming reg- 
ular paupers. 

One naturally looks for something profitable, something prac- 
tical in the last words of a last lecture. Perhaps after so weary 
a flight you will allow me to come home. It may be my only 
chance. I confess that while suffering from the indisposition 
which, to my regret, caused the postponement of this lecture 
at the appointed time, there were two or three thoughts that 
increased the throbbing of the brain — things that I wished to 
live to say. 

Have we, as societies and individuals, done all we can to 
bless the suffering poor ] 

I know that some will again speak of the pressure of busi- 
ness, and the want of time. We will save them the least 
trouble. There is a contrivance just to meet their case. We 



364 APPENDIX. [Lecture IT. 

have a society in our city with a hundred benevolent heads, and 
more hands, that visits every house in it, and asks the rich to 
give and the poor to receive. It discreetly bestov^^s bread to 
the hungry, clothes to the naked, kind words to the disheart- 
ened, and advice and attendance to the sick. It can detect 
imposition or true suffering better than any unpractised indi- 
vidual, and it will take time to distribute all your alms. Within 
about three years it has relieved some ten thousand poor. It 
has careful and humane visitors for every square and street, 
advisory committees to consult with them in every ward, a 
central office and agent for constant reference, and an executive 
committee to aid in directing the whole. Truly the originator 
of this noble plan deserves a monument. Nowhere in the old 
world have I seen any institution better adapted to its purpose, 
more carefully managed, or more truly benevolent than the 
Brooklyn Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 

To revert to another of these anxious thoughts : in the 
most populous cities of Europe, there are always extensive 
pleasure grounds and parks, open to the poorest. They may 
live in the filthiest garrets and in the dampest cellars, but 
the sight of flowers, and green trees, and the broad expanse 
of heaven is not denied them. You may see poor women knit- 
ting and sewing, and children playing, in the parks of Paiis or 
London, all day long. 

I feel more free to allude to this subject, because a certain 
local matter, that agitated us a few weeks since, is settled. I 
am no partisan. Leaving the question as to where or how 
parks shall be opened, to the "city fathers,'' I wish to be in- 
dulged in a passing remark upon the general question, on the 
simple ground of humanity. 

The rich have roomy inclosures ornamented with flowers and 
greenhouses, and they can take the air in carriages or on horse- 
back ; in our long, oppressive summers, even our middling 
classes go awhile to the country; but the helpless poor must 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 365 

welter and pine in crowded apartments, loo"king upon lanes and 
offensive alleys the year round. I speak disinterestedly, for 
the more parks you have, the less occasion will you have for 
our services as physicians. And I can not help here solemnly 
recording a professional opinion, based upon observation for 
some years, that a leading cause of the great mortality in 
children in our American cities, is the want of large open 
spaces, and of fresh air. You have all noticed those thin young 
creatures, the sewing girls, that with little parcels steal like 
spectres past you in the edge of the evening. And in a mo- 
ment, perhaps, you think of poor Hood's legacy to humanity, 
the " Song of the Shirt," and the thrilling murmur that 

" Bread should be so dear, 
And flesh and blood so cheap !" 

Well, one of these young sufferers comes to us for advice. One 
glance at her pale, sickly face, careworn even in youth, tells 
she is ill. We ask how late she works ] and she replies, " some- 
times till midnight, and sometimes later." " But why do you 
work so hard V and perhaps she murmurs, " I have a mother, 
who is a widow, and young sisters." We feel her pulse, look 
gravely professional, and tell her she is killing herself — pre- 
scribe a walk every day, and direct her to remain out a few 
hours to get the fresh air. And then her wan face rests upon us, 
and in a faint, desponding tone she asks — "Where V She has 
not time to go far. I v/ish I could thunder in the ears of every 
citizen, " Where V If she were in some cities, we could send 
her to a splendid park, where she might sit upon the benches 
under the trees, and amid the song of birds and the prattle of 
children, sew all the day. You may stint the poor in every 
thing else, if it is your cruel will, but give them, we beseech 
you, the air of heaven. 

There is a fond dream — T hesitate — yes — -I love my adopted 
home — I will tell it you. Not far from this is a romantic spot, 



366 APPENDIX, [Lecture II. 

overlooking the beautiful panorama of New- York bay, the 
finest location for a pleasure ground in the world. I have dared 
to dream of a Park on Brooklyn Heights. 

Have any of you lain for weeks and months in agonizing pain 
or burning fever 1 If so, you have probably been tenderly 
nursed, and your anguish has been soothed by every attention 
that generous hearts and skillful heads could devise. What 
if these and poverty had come together 1 I often fear that 
we never sufficiently pity the sick poor. In the whirl of 
business we hear not their moans, and know not their sor- 
rows. ^ - 

I know some will plead that they can not leave the counting- 
house or workshop to turn good Samaritan, or bring the victim 
of small-pox or fever into the bosom of their families. There is 
a way to accomplish the good, and avoid all this. 

A company has been originated in our city, in the cheapest 
and best way, to attend the sick. The stock is only twenty- 
five dollars per share. Excellent business men direct its affairs 
without any salary. Skillful physicians and surgeons attend 
gratuitously. To such advantage is every thing contrived, that 
a poor sick man can have shelter, fuel, nursing, medicine, food, 
and professional attendance, for a month, all for twelve dollars. 
And every thing is just what is best for the patient. 

By investing two hundred dollars in the stock of this com- 
pany, the interest will every year enable you to act the good 
Samaritan, by providing for every want of four sick persons for 
a week, or one patient for a whole month. All night long, while 
you are sweetly sleeping at home, he will be watched by ex- 
perienced nurses, and a physician will be within call. 

Every year in your life will repeat the scene. When death shall 
come — that crisis when the miser unlooses his gripe, and wealth 
can purchase but a shroud and coffin- — you will feel the con- 
sciousness of having helped to assuage the pangs of others. 
When you shall have long lain in your grave, your bounty will 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 3G7 

still be blessing. The scene will be enacted over again every 
year to the end of time. 

How much w^ill you give to the Brooklyn City Hospital 1 
But besides all this, are needed your personal services, your 
individual charity. 

Alone, and seen only by the eye of Heaven, it is delightful, 
sometimes, to steal noiselessly to the loveliest haunts of sorrow. 
Let us not wait to be ostentatiously marshaled. Genuine love 
for the helpless, like the purest earthly affection, prefers to man- 
ifest itself delicately, and in secret. Like the ivy, it tenderly 
creeps to bind the shattered fabric, and gladden the abodes of 
desolation. Such benevolence is a spontaneous principle that 

" is not strained — 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath ; it is twice blessed — 
It blesseth him who gives, and him who takes.'' 

The discontented are often made suddenly rich and thankful, 
by the sojourn of a single hour in the abodes of wretchedness. 

What happiness would it create if every comfortable citizen 
were to become the constant benefactor of but one poor neighbor? 

In addition to the mere necessaries of life, the poor need your 
sympathy — your fjiendship. Such gentle and yet strong influ- 
ences will do more than any thing else to redeem them. 

That young man, once the pride of a humble hearth, who, 
hopelessly crushed, is now wearing the manacles of a convict, 
and sleeping, to-night, like a dangerous beast, within the iron 
bars of a state prison, might have triumphed, perhaps, over temp- 
tation, had he known one virtuous friend, too dear to disgrace. 

Close inspection is necessary to make us properly feel for the 
needy. 

After all our professed humanity, probably we really know 
but little of the miseries of the poor. Do we, for example, fairly 
understand the sensation of starving hunger ] How many pres- 



368 ' APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

ent have ever v^^anted bread for a whole day 1 Let any of us, 
in ravenous health, go three days without tasting food, and we 
will not refuse to feed the hungry again while we live. It will 
cure us of hardness of heart as effectually as, before the era of 
temperance pledges, the celebrated Dr. Chambers' medicine 
cured drunkenness. 

But what if you could take the place of the poor man, and 
with you starved a mother, or wife and children, and what if to 
this were added shivering cold, with an empty grate and ragged 
family, and pining sickness, and the scorn of the cruel world ! 
It is more than flesh and blood can bear. If pity and love will 
not move you, we will appeal to your fears. I am no apologist 
for crime, but I tell you the stern truth, that if you neglect to 
care for the poor, they may he driven to provide for themselves. 
Starvation and cold, and the contempt of the heartless, may 
madden men to almost any thing. 

Hush ! methinks I hear a noise in the street. It is a cry for 
the watchmen. In fancy we hurry to the crowd. They have 
found a man lying on the pavement, apparently dead, and as 
you grope about him in the dark, you dip your fingers in a pool 
of warm blood. A light is brought. His watch and money 
are gone. There are fearful gashes inthe skull, and you turn 
dizzy as they pull from nis wounds the gray locks, all stained 
with oozing brain and gore. They turn him with his face up- 
ward. It is an old man, and your heart beats violently, he looks 
so like your own father ! 

Would that this were all fiction, but you remember too well 
a scene in a neighboring street, but a few months since, to know 
that it is not. 

The hardened villain that, in violation of the laws of God and 
man, struck him to the ground, with the deliberate intent to 
murder for gold, was once, perhaps, a famished child, whom 
want drove first to steal, or, three or four years since, one 
stormy winter's night, he watched over his faint and shivering 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 369 

•wife and children, till, frantic, he sought the highway for plun- 
der, and became a changed man. 

If you wish to walk safely through the streets — if you desire 
to have fewer bars and bolts, and to rest tranquilly with your 
wives and little ones, without deadly weapons by your pillows 
to meet the daring housebreaker, you must feed and clothe 
the poor. 

But these are disagreeable truths, and we turn to a more 
pleasing argument. 

The last consideration in this part of our plea shall be 
something sacred. We appeal to you to bless the needy in the 
name of the genius of your faith. Christianity is emphatically 
the great religion of benevolence. No other belief ever founded 
a hospital or maintained an alms-house. We have built mag- 
nificent temples, till ours is termed the " city of churches ;" 
but liave we duly provided homes for the sick and distressed 1 
Perhaps we have never rightly understood the creed we pro- 
fess. Its volume of revelation is a text book of charity. It 
illustrates its cardinal doctrine of " love to our neighbor," by 
telling us of the prophet who wrought a miracle to save a 
famished widow, and of a good Samaritan, who rested on his 
journey to rescue a wounded traveler. To encourage woman 
in one of her holiest missions, it depicts the beautiful death- 
scene of one who made garments for the poor, and, dying, 
drew them around her, as if to embalm the cold corpse with 
their tears, till their lamentations brought a messenger of 
Heaven with the life-giving word. Arise. 

The Hero of its history lived but to bless. If the hungry 
murmured by thousands, he fed them ; when the filthy leper 
and the halting paralytic came crowding to him, he sent them 
on their way rejoicing. A blind beggar could not raise a 
plaintive cry in the throng, but the Redeemer stopped to listen, 
and the light of Heaven flashed through his sightless balls. With 
disconsolate sisters he went to weep over the grave of their 

a* 



370 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

brother, and then joined together those whom death had 
parted. He could not pass the bier of a widow's son, without 
giving joy to the broken-hearted mother. Then, as a crowning 
act of his benevolent life, he died for others. 

But in his last will and testament, he left a startling revela- 
tion, an impressive charge. As if conscious that inhumanity 
would be the great besetting sin of his followers, to warn 
them, he declared his beloved poor should personify Hiniy 
to the end of time. Surely, in his prophetic account of the 
future judgment, he would not have passed by theft, murder, 
and black deeds, of whose enormity men seem more conscious, 
to reprove this more common treason, without some purpose. 

Imagine that scene, when he " who spake as never man 
spake," said : " Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these 
little ones, ye did it not to me." Can we realize all this ? 
Do we, who in various churches of our city every Sabbath 
profess to offer our devotions with so much sincerity, ever 
remember that the despised ones in the alleys and lanes around 
us, are the representatives of the Saviour % Yet in the face of 
these solemn lessons, this glaring fact, how seldom do we visit 
them — how little do we deny ourselves to serve them ! 

Oh, I fear we have shut our eyes and ears to the kindlier 
teachings of our faith. 

Let us who are nominal Christians, by the exercise of 
Heaven-born charity among the needy, daily and weekly prove 
our " faith by our works," and humbly hope, in the world 
beyond the grave, to receive the blessed salutation — " I was an 
hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and 
ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me." 



In the beginning, I promised you an explanation at the con- 
clusion. Allow me briefly to say that it is proposed to organize 



Lecture II.] EUROPEAN CHARITIES AND POOR. 371 



in our own city, an institution similar to the charitable pawning 
establishments of Paris and Vienna, just described. I have not 
time now to do justice to its advantages. We have not as yet, 
I believe, any private interests that, for this benevolent purpose, 
need be affected. 

It will, if established, be an auxiliary ta the Saving's Bank, 
and Poor Association. 

It is just the thing for our Atlantic cities,, where the emigrant 
poor accumulate so rapidly, from being out of funds to travel 
farther. They can pledge something to carry them into the 
fertile interior, to be afterward redeemed by their industry. 

It can aid, as in Germany, the poorer mechanic in misfortune, 
or when trade is dull, to dispose of his old stock to the best 
advantage. 

Many, stricken down suddenly by sickness or calamity, may 
by it be enabled to recover, without the cold world being the 
wiser. They will thus avoid becoming advertised and despair- 
ing paupers. 

It can refuse the preferred deposit of the di'unkard, and help 
ferret out the housebreaker. 

Desperate youth, hesitating over forgery, suicide, or a fouler 
crime ; lonely woman, goaded on by hunger and want to 
weep at the thoughts of a sacrifice that will seal her destiny, 
by its aid at the critical moment, may be saved from ruin. 

A few months since a strano^er stood amid a crowd in the 
theatre of the immense hospital at Vienna, looking at their 
first surgical operation with Ether. They had just received 
intelligence of the discovery by the last steamer. 

Fancy the victim calm as a slumbering infant. The knife 
glitters — the blood streams ! There ! the gory tumor is held 
up in triumph ! But the patient sleeps on without a twinge of 
pain, till at last he wakens with a smile, and a cry of joy that it 
is over. The trial has succeeded ; a forest of heads bend for- 
v/ard, there comes a deafening cheer, and a group gather round 



372 APPENDIX. [Lecture II. 

the stranger, press his hand with enthusiasm, and congratulate 
him, as an American, on the discovery of his countryman. 

And why was all this commotion among a crowd of passive 
Austrians ] It was a hoon to the afflicted forever. 

Every beneficent institution, whether it lulls the pangs of 
hunger, warms the aching limbs, or binds up the broken heart, 
is a similar agency. 

That stranger went and obtained in exchange, in that same 
city of Vienna, the plan of an excellent contrivance for the 
relief of suffering. It has been tried there with great success 
nearly a century and a half Will you, as fairly as the Vien- 
nese did the Ether, help to try this invention here] It needs 
little but credit and character. Once established, it will sup- 
port itself More than this, it can aid your poor-fund or Hos- 
pital. It only needs a charter from the Legislature, and a 
dozen retired merchants or practical business men, in whom the 
public have perfect confidence, as Directors, to commence ope- 
rations. 

The SECRET then promised to you in parting — the long-cher- 
ished idea, but for which these lectures would probably never 
have been delivered — is that of a Benevolent liOAN Institu- 
tion FOR THE City of Brooklyn. 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS 

AND 

SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE 



My dear 



Excuse the delay which has occurred in replying to your 
letter, containing inquiries respecting European Hospitals and 
Schools of Medicine. You remember that your questions 
were very comprehensive, requiring time for consideration. 
Besides which, I may as well tell you a little secret, in con- 
nection with which I have to ask a favor : I am just furnish- 
ing the publishers the last sheets of a small volume of travels. 
I think I see your mischievous smile ; but with me it is a fearful 
fact. Yes, I am just shivering before jumping into the stream ; 
or, if you please, just tryiDg to master my blushes before 
being weighed, measured, criticised, and stared at, by the great 
public. 

Only very special reasons, and the leisure afforded from 
practice in traveling, would have tempted me into this little 
episode from my profession. The duties of our mutual calling 
are too fearfully responsible to allow me to leave it long. It 
was my spontaneous choice, my earliest love. I have pledged 
it devotion for life. The toils, sufferings, adventures, hopes, 
and fears it has excited, have but endeared it the more. You 
will not think it strange, then, if I can scarcely attempt any 
thing without mixing with it a little physic. I have wished, in 
some way, to atone for this excursion, by returning to my 
legitimate occupation at the close. 



374 APPENDIX. 



Large numbers of our physicians and students of medicine, 
like yourself, anxiously wish to add to our own very respect- 
able advantages those of Europe. To those who have the 
strongest claim upon our sympathies — the toiling, despairing, 
hoping ones in the midst of the "chapter of early struggles," 
and nobly rising by their own efforts, the leading object of such 
a tour must be, to spend their precious means and time to the 
best advantage. With the hope of serving; such, I am willing 
to risk some sug'o'estions. , 

The thought has occurred to me to add a chapter, as an 
appendix to the volume, containing the principal items of the 
medical bill of fare abroad ; but I have been puzzled to do so 
gracefully. 

Your letter suggests a solution of the difficulty. Suppose 
you allow me to extend this reply, so as briefly and familiarly 
to go over the ground, publish it, instead of the proposed formal 
chapter, and bequeath you the manuscript 1 If you approve 
of the plan, and think it likely to benefit any of our fellow- 
sufferers in physic, please return these sheets, at your earliest 
convenience, to be lent, for a few days, to the printer. 

As more Americans go there to study than to any other 
place abroad, we will commence with the French capital, and 
notice it most in detail. 

The civil hospitals of Paris are under the management of a 
General Council of Hospitals, composed of seventeen mem- 
bers, appointed by the government, having a central office near 
the Hotel Dieu, where the secretary, treasurer, and subordi- 
nates are in daily attendance. To this Bweau Central^ as a 
general rule, patients must apply for reception, when, after 
strict examination by one of the physicians or surgeons attach- 
ed to this department, they are sent to the hospitals in which 
there are vacancies. 

A central apothecary establishment, bakery, and wine-cellar, 
under the conti'ol of the general council, supply all the hospi- 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 375 

tals of Paris. Their revenues are derived from bequests, in 
real estate and money, a large annual allowance from the city, 
a tax of ten per cent, on the receipts of the theatres, and the 
profits on the sales in the public cemeteries, and of the Mont de 
Piete, or Benevolent Pawning Institution. They have latterly 
reached the enormous sum of nearly three and a half millions 
of dollars in a single year. 

There are thirty-one places of refuge for the sick in Paris. 
Of these, nine are general hospitals, for the reception of patients 
with every kind of malady, with three or four exceptions ; ten 
are special hospitals, for the treatment of particular affections or 
classes of patients ; and the remaining twelve are hospices or 
alms-houses of different kinds, with departments for the treat- 
ment of disease. 

The hospitals are usually furnished with a surgeon or phy- 
sician for every sixty patients, elected by concours, as will be 
explained presently, and paid yearly, according to time of 
service, from about one hundred and twenty to three hundred 
and fifty dollars. These are assisted by one or more internes, 
or resident physicians, who are appointed in the same way 
from a list of competitors, by an examining jury. These last 
receive between seventy and eighty dollars salary, and board 
in the hospital. They are generally permitted to increase their 
slender resources by giving practical instruction in the wards. 
The dressers, or externes, get no salary, and are allowed to Hve 
out of the hospital, visiting the wards twice a-day to attend to 
dressing, bleeding, cupping, and the like. Foreigners, as well 
as natives, are allowed to compete for both of these places, and 
generally the candidate who sustains the best examination is 
impartially chosen. There is also an apothecaries' assistant for 
each service, appointed in the same manner. 

But the most interesting person in the group of attendants 
who follow the physician or surgeon, is the sister of charity^ 
with her large bunch of keys and white apron. She has charge 



376 APPENDIX. 



in his absence, and administers every thing. Though not 
bound by vows to ceHbacy, these gentle and self-denying crea- 
tures, commonly devote their lives to the care of the sick. 
They are generally beloved, and it is always customary for the 
physician to address the one in attendance, respectfully, as 
*' mother " or " sister." 

Besides these there are a general superintendent of the hos- 
pital, or directeu7\ and a steward, or econome. 

The wards are usually large, lofty, and well-ventilated, with 
floors of little I'ed tiles, or inlaid oak, polished with wax, and 
the bedsteads are nearly all of iron. 

Each patient costs, one with another, about thirty-five cents 
per day. The mortality averages not far from one in eleven. 
Bodies not reclaimed, by the payment of about twelve dollars, 
for their burial, are taken for dissection. Foreigners, as well as 
natives, are admitted to all the hospitals, open to the medical 
public, without any charge or formality, other than asking at 
the proper place for tickets for the Hotel Dieu and the Hopital 
des Cliniques. To avail yourself of their advantages, however, 
you are compelled to rise early, swallow a cup of coffee in 
French style, and be at any of the hospitals at about seven in 
the morning, as all the visits of the physicians and surgeons 
commence about that hour. Tlie regular clinical lectures and 
operations usually come off, after the visit, from nine to ten 
o'clock. 

Perhaps it may be interesting to notice, more particularly, a 
few of the principal hospitals. 

The oldest in Paris, if not in Europe, is that of the Hotel 
Dieu, situated in a rather unhealthy location, partly over a 
branch of the Seine, and close to the cathedral of Notre Dame. 
It contains about a thousand beds, and presents, on the whole, 
more cases of interest than any other. Its cliniques and wards 
are always thronged with students. The mortality of its pa- 
tients exceeds that of most of the others. 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 377 



You will recollect that the late Baron Dupuytren was 
connected with Hotel Dieu. His rival, the celebrated Roux, 
is now senior surgeon, and, therefore, at the head of this 
department of the profession. Though nearly seventy, he still 
operates with surprising facility and determination. I have 
seen him extract cataract, and perform some of the more 
delicate operations, with the readiness of a surgeon in his 
prime. He enunciates so badly, however, from taking snufF, 
or an impediment, that the French students themselves can 
scarcely understand him. One of his surgical colleagues is 
Blandin, author of a valuable anatomical work, with which 
you are doubtless familiar. He is one of the neatest oper- 
ators in Paris, and a very pleasing lecturer. Professors 
Rostan and Chomel are among the physicians to the Hotel 
Dieu, and attract crowds of students to their clinical lec- 
tures. But the physician of this vast establishment best 
known abroad is probably Baron Louis. He has a tall, com- 
manding figure, and fine, intelligent features. His powers of 
observation and perception of nice differences are extraor- 
dinary. You can not have read his works on phthisis and 
typhoid fever, without being convinced of this. I have never 
listened to any one, who, like a judge, could give such a 
masterly smnming up of a medical case, as Louis. He will 
always take time thoroughly to sift an obscure affection. Two 
or three intimate friends and myself, happened to take a par- 
ticular fancy to him, following him, for some months, more than 
any other physician ; and we were richly repaid. Yet apart 
from his wonderful elucidation of symptoms and diagnosis, his 
U-eatment, like that of most of the Parisian physicians, will 
probably seem too expectant and inert. Seltzer water in 
typhoid fever, and gum Arabic in phthisis, are standard pre- 
scriptions. 

Next, perhaps, to the Hotel Dieu, we may enumerate the hos- 
pital of La Charite, situate in Rue Jacob, and containing about 



378 APPENDIX. 



five hundred beds. With those fond of surgery, Velpeau is the 
lion of this place. He is a delicate, precise-looking person, 
below medium height, and a little turned, fifty. As you are 
aware he is a walking library in his profession. He lectures 
with much fluency and point, and with a clear enunciation of 
French that makes him a favorite with foreigners. You will 
find, perhaps, a greater crowd of students in his wards than 
those of any other. Occasionally he magnifies, and gets prolix 
upon trifling matters. Some even whisper that he sometimes 
shoots with the long bow. Generally, however, his clinical in- 
stiTictions are exceedingly interesting. 

His notions of the apjpareil immovahle in fractures, and his 
treatment of varicose veins and inflammation of the joints, are 
probably familiar to you. 

Andral, the celebrated pathologist ; Rayer, the writer on dis- 
eases of the skin and kidneys : Fouquier, the introducer of nox 
vomica in paralytic affections ; and Bouillaud, the Sangrado 
of the French school, are physicians to La Cliarite. The latter 
is a lively caustic lecturer, but you will probably join me in 
believing him too much the slave of two or three dogmas. His 
repeated bleedings (coup sur coup), and excessive local depletion 
of the thin, nervous Parisians, even in typhoid fever, will strike 
you as rather eccentric. You will probably fear that his **blow 
upon blow" system often knocks down and "strangles" the 
patient rather than the disease. Yet no one can deny the ser- 
vice he has rendered to medical science in his investigations of 
disease of the heart and rheumatism. 

The Hospital of St. Louis is situated some distance from the 
rest in the Faubourg du Temple. It is next in antiquity and 
size to Hotel Dieu, containing some eight, hundred beds. 

- St. Louis, is devoted to the treatment of cutaneous affections. 
There are clinical lectures on diseases of the skin here, during 
the summer, and I would advise you, at almost any sacrifice, to 
attend them. Probably there is no place in the world so rich 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 379 

in the materials for the study of this department of the profession. 
Alibert and Biett were formerly physicians here, and their places 
are worthily filled by Cazenave and Gibert. Tepid baths are 
used as accessory means in dry, scaly eruptions, the alkaline in 
tubercular, papular, and some scaly forms, and the sulphur baths 
in the decline of vesicular affections. Some obstinate cutaneous 
eruptions have latterly been found to be benefited by cold water. 
In impetigo, liquor arsenicalis is given; and, in some forms of 
eczema, sulphur and quinine are sometimes administered. 

M. Lugol is physician to the wards for tli@ treatment of 
scrofula. You are, doubtless, familiar with his investigations 
on the suDJect of iodine. 

As you pass along the Rue de I'Ecole de Medecine, you 
will notice in one place an imposing edifice on each side. That 
on the right, with Ionic columns, is the School of Medicine, and 
that on the left is the Hopital des Cliniques. The magnates of 
this hospital are Jules Cloquet in surgery, and the celebrated 
Dubois in obstetrics. The clinical lectures of the latter are 
among the most instructive and practical lessons you will hear. 
There are special privileges to be obtained here, about which 
it will be well for you to inquire. 

The Hospital of Lta Fitie is situated near the Garden of 
Plants, and contains about six hundred beds. 

Its two distinguished surgeons, Lisfranc and Auguste Berard, 
have died since I left, and I have not heard the names of their 
euccessors. La Pitie is one of the best places in Paris to 
study diseases of the chest. It is a httle out of the way, so 
that you are not crowded, and these affections are there rather 
a favorite speciality. You will find M. Piorry, who is one of 
its physicians, a perfect enthusiast on this subject. He is, you 
remember, the inventor of the Plessimeter for mediate percus- 
sion. Like the celebrated Laennec, with pardonable fondness, 
perhaps, he places too much emphasis on a mere instrument, 
where you find your own fingers so satisfactory. Yet he 



380 APPENDIX. 



certainly has wonderful tact and discrimination. You will see 
him tapping his little piece of ivory over, a patient's chest for 
half an hour, noticing the most delicate variations of sound, 
and marking upon the skin or under dress, with a. large lead 
pencil, the exact boundaries of pleuritic effusion, hepatized 
lung or cavity, or enlarged liver or spleen. 

You will hear some laughing at what they term his extrava- 
gant refinement ; but, after all, the men who are so wrapped 
up with a single subject, are apt to impress you with it more 
than any others, and it is easy for you to make a little allow- 
ance for their zeal. M. Piorry's instrument is more particu- 
larly useful in exploring the abdomen. 

From the broad Rue de Sevres you enter the Ilopital Necker, 
containing a hundred and twenty beds, and founded by the 
widow of the distinguished statesman of that name. It was 
here that Laennec made the invaluable discovery of auscul- 
tation in diseases of the chest. You may usually see here a 
good many cases of acute diseases. 

M. Trousseau, to whom we are principally indebted for the 
introduction of the use of nitrate of silver in affections of the 
throat, officiates here. 

He lectures pleasantly, and prescribes admirably. His use 
of the resources of the Materia Medica is far more liberal than 
most of the Parisian physicians. I scarcely remember one 
whose treatment pleased me so well. 

But the great attraction of the Necker Hospital is Civiale. 
He is undoubtedly the first in his speciality in the world. No 
medical visitor should leave Paris without witnessing his sur- 
prising manipulations in litliotrity. It is really a treat to see 
him merely use a catheter or hougie, so delicately, tenderly, and 
quickly is it done. His lectures are always crowded, and his 
text is gentleness. 

Close to this, in the same street, is the Children's Hospital, 
or Ilopital des Enfans Malades, partially inclosing spacious 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS A.ND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 381 

grounds. It numbers upwards of five hundred beds, and 
accommodates patients from the age of three to fifteen. You 
will be particularly interested in the mode of treating scrofula, 
croup, chorea, and some other affections among the little patients 
of this larg^e establishment. Great use is made of medicated- 
baths. 

M. Guerin, the editor of the Gazette Medicate, is ortho- 
pedic surgeon to this hospital. The fame of his sub-cutaneous 
operations for deformity, is doubtless familiar to you. He dis- 
plays wonderful dexterity, mechanical ingenuity, and knowl- 
edge of anatomy. In one instance, at a single sitting, he is 
said to have divided the muscles of the arm and hand forty- 
four times. His weekly cliniques at the hospital, in summer, 
will be well worth your attention. 

You should not forget to visit some of his little patients 
under treatment for curvature of the spine, club-foot, and 
other deformities. So many ingenious machines — such com- 
binations of springs, cushions, clasps, pulleys, wheels, splints, 
leather, steel, and India-rubber, for straightening people, you 
will never have seen before. 

I should have liked to have included in this brief review the 
practice of the celebrated Ricord at the Hojiital du Midi, the 
pleasant Hospital of Beaujou, and the minor ones of St. An- 
toine, Hotel Dieu Annexe, Cochin, and others, but re.ally I find 
myself likely to make this letter so long, that I must be excused. 

As I mentioned before, just opposite the Hopital des Clin- 
iques is the School of Medicine. 

Entering, perhaps, with a crowd at a given signal, you find 
yourself in one its lecture rooms, capable of accommodating 
some fourteen hundred students. The Parisian Faculty of 
Medicine is composed of twenty-six professors, most of whom, 
either in winter or summer, lecture here. They are salaried by 
government, at from about four hundred to nearly two thousand 
dollars each, and are thus independent of their pupils. Each 



382 APPENDIX. 



of these has an assistant professor, or agrege, who, in case of 
need, lectures in place of the professor, but receives no remu- 
neration, except certain privileges, and the chance of being ele- 
vated to the first vacant chair. 

- With the exception of the blanks for vacancies or recent 
deaths, the following is a list of the professorships and incum- 
bents : 

Anatomy, ; External PaiJwlogy, Marjolin and Gerdy; 

Internal Pathology, Dumeril and Piorry; General Pathology 
and Therapeutics y Andral ; Medical Chemistry, Oifila ; Legal 
Medicine, Adelon ; Clinical Surgery at the Hospitals, Roux at 
Hotel Dieu, Cloquet at the Hopital des Cliniques, Velpeau at 
the Charite, — — at La Pitie ; Clinical Medicine, Fouquier and 
Bouillaud at La Charite, and Chorael and Rostan at the Hotel 
Dieu ; Clinical Obstetrics, Dubois at the Hopital des Cli- 
niques ; Medical Physics, Gavarret ; Hygiene, Royer Collard ; 
Medical Natural History, Richard ; Obstetrics, Moreau ; 
Physiology, Pierre Berard; Pharmacy and Organic Chemis- 
try, Dumas ; Operative Surgery, Blandin ; Therapeutics and 
Materia Medica, Trousseau. 

The branches marked in Italics constitute the winter course, 
commencing with November, and terminating in March. From 
the beginning of April to the end of July is included in the 
summer course, during which the lectures on Pathology and 
clinical instruction are continued, and the latter branches 
of the- above list given, from Medical Physics to Materia 
Medica,^ inclusive. August, September, and October are in- 
cluded in a vacation. 

All the above lectures are free, both to natives and foreign- 
ers ; the only fees are those paid by such as wish for the Parisian 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. These are required at intervals, 
during the four years of study specified, and amount, in all, to 
about two hundred and twenty dollars. 

These professors, together with all medical officers in France, 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE, 383 

civil or military, down to the lowest assistants at the hospitals, 
are appointed by the concours. A day is fixed and publicly ad- 
vertised, when, before a kind of professional jury of examiners, 
all who are eligible are invited to appear and compete as for an 
honorable prize. The ordeal is often fearfully searching. 
Merit alone is usually the test. He who sustains the best ex- 
amination, though he be poor and friendless, is preferred. In 
this way Baron Dupuytren, Velpeau, and some of the most dis- 
tinguished men in the profession, have been enabled to rise 
to the highest honors from very obscure circumstances. The 
former, indeed, trimmed his lamp from the dissecting-room ; 
and the latter was bred a country blacksmith. A project has 
been agitated, recently, to modify this system, as is supposed, 
to increase the patronage of the government, but it is believed 
not to have succeeded. 

A Parisian student of medicine obtains his degree by five dif- 
ferent examinations, distributed at nearly equally distant periods 
during the four years of his course. The last of these is prac- 
tical, and consists in prescribing for two patients, selected from 
the wards of the Clinical Hospital, in presence of the professors. 
Kather a liberal education in the classics, mathematics, and gen- 
eral science, as guaranteed by the diploma of Bachelor of 
Science, is required. A little further on in the same street as 
the School of Medicine are Dupuytren's museum, and the dis- 
secting halls of the Ecole Practique. Here you may have a course 
of dissections for several weeks, with the material found you, 
and a capital demonstrator to assist, all for not quite five dollars, 
or for the same sum, a little later, you may hear an excellent 
course of lectures on operative surgery, from some ambitious 
young surgeon, and then perform all the operations twice on the 
dead subject. The Ecole Practique is sometimes rather filthy 
and offensive, and you will find every thing more pleasant, and 
a more liberal supply of material, by paying some ten or twelve 
dollars for three or four months' dissections at the extensive Ana- 



384 APPENDIX. 



tomical School at Clam art. This is the finest establishment of 
the kind in the world. It is kept very clean, and is furnished 
with pleasant walks and grounds. The above are the only two 
places where dissections are allowed ; and from some experience 
of both, even with a much longer walk, I would strongly advise 
you to choose the latter. 

Among the greatest privileges of those who go to Paris, 
merely for a finish to their medical studies, are the special 
private courses given by the internes in the hospitals, and others. 
Many young men lecture and give lessons in this way more for 
reputation than any thing else. These courses genei'ally last a 
month, and cost, on an average, some four or five dpllars each. 
The classes usually contain from four or five to a dozen or more. 
Somejof the most distinguished professors have junior repre- 
sentatives, whb familiarly and practically teach the doctrines of 
their masters in this way. Thus, perhaps, you may get a brush- 
ing on physiology, with experiments on animals, from Magen- 
die's assistant; or an excellent drilling in auscultation and per- 
cussion, at the bedside, from Piorry's interne, at jLa Pitie ; 
or you may imbibe the doctrines of Dubois, second-hand ; or 
grow wise with the microscope, or put an emphasis on almost 
any branch of medical knowledge you please. 

There is a quiet original. Monsieur Ribail, living not far from 
the School of Medicine, who, for six weeks, and months after, Vi^l 
give you what he calls a "perpetual" course, and enlighten 
you to your heart's content, on the subject of bandaging and 
minor surgery, for the modest sum of not quite three dollars. 

There are many distinguished men, and many professional 
advantages I have not space to notice. The valuable lectures 
and facilities for the study of comparative anatomy, and various 
accessory branches of naturab history, at the Garden of Plants, 
and many other matters have been omitted. ^ 

For further details, I may refer you to the excellent descrip- 
tions of Stewart, Lee, and others. . ^ 



m 



4 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 385 



In conclusion, I may remark, that the bright traits of the 
French school will probably seem mingled with some little 
faults. With a few exceptions, the treatment appears rather too 
temporizing and inactive. The broken down Parisians, it is 
true, are not the subjects for heroic depletion. But, then, you 
will occasionally see feeble, vitiated constitutions, sinking with 
typhoid symptoms, left to nature and starvation, or amused 
with poultices to the abdomen, gum water, lavements, and the 
like, when you would be generously pouring in beef-tea, wine, 
and carbonate of ammonia, to sustain them. Yet the typhoid 
fever of Paris, with its lesions of the intestinal canal, will not 
bear stimulation like Irish typhus. Parisian practice does not 
seem eclectic enough. There appears to be a little too much 
theory and visionary speculation. Each physician is too often 
the slave of some favorite doctrine. The operations in surgery 
are skillful and excellent, but the after-treatment and the medical 
surgery are not so good. Union by the first intention is not suf- 
ficiently encouraged, and the patient's strength is often unsup- 
ported. There is an excessive fondness for greasy applications 
and thick, oppressive bandaging and compresses, even in warm 
weather. 

Yet there are more redeeming traits. In skillful diagnosis, 
brilliantly eloquent lecturers, profound knowledge of important 
specialities, and rich variety of medical advantages, easy of 
access, I know of no city equal to Paris. 

Perhaps we cannot select fairer illustrative examples of the 
medical institutions of Germany, than those of Vienna and 
Berlin. 

We will commence with the former. 

Joseph II., son of Maria Theresa, and one of the most liberal 
and beneficent rulers of Austria, suppressed several other in- 
stitutions, and, assisted partly by their revenues, founded an 
immense hospital, which, regarded in every point of view, is 
probably the first in Europe. The Allgemeine KranJcenJiaus, 

R 



386 APPENDIX. 



as it is termed, is situated in the outer or suburb city, covers 
probably more than a dozen acres of ground, employs nearly 
three hundred and fifty ofiicers and attendants, from the head 
physicians downward, with salaries amounting to some $40,000, 
and accommodates about three thousand five hundred patients, 
when filled. 

You will perceive that is as large as four or five of the larger 
Parisian hospitals put together. In fact, it is a sort of little 
medical city of itself, the families of the physicians, professors, 
and attendants, being all furnished with residences in the hos- 
pital buildings. 

There are three classes of patients, of whom those of the 
first pay forty florins (about $20) a month, and have each a 
separate room and nurse, and receive better fare ; those of the 
second class pay twenty-seven florins a month; and those of 
the third class, if able, pay nine florins monthly, with inferior 
accommodations, in larger wards. Different trades, distant 
localities, employers, and even foreign ambassadors, are some- 
times called upon to pay for those who have the least claim to 
their protection. 

Each important class of diseases has a division of the hos- 
pital particularly appropriated to it, under the charge of some 
one paying more exclusive attention to such speciality. 

There ai'e three leading characteristics in which the modern 
Viennese school, as represented in this hospital, exceeds, per- 
haps, any other : the study of morbid anatomy, auscultation 
and percussion of the chest, and diseases of the eye. 

In a retired spot in the rear of the hospital, side by side, 
with a door communicating, are a couple of roomy apartments, 
in a small building of one story. In one of these all the bodies 
of those who have died in this immense hospital are examined ; 
and in the other, all the subjects of suspicious death in the city 
of Vienna, or such as would demand the coroner in this coun- 
try. You enter at eight o'clock in the morning. A stout, 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 387 

middle-aged gentleman, with Polish features, and rather stoop- 
ed, is passing backward and forward, superintending the dis- 
sections in both departments. It is the celebrated Professor 
Rokitansky. In each there is an assistant, who uses the 
scalpel with great facility, and dictates , aloud, in German, 
the morbid appearances to a clerk, who takes notes of each 
case. 

In what we would term the coroner's department there are 
frequent cases of poisoning and infanticide. Some are the 
subjects of severe wounds or injuries, which leave most of the 
organs perfectly healthy ; and, by merely passing from one room 
to the other, you can compare these with the diseased struc- 
tures of the fever patients, and others who have died in the 
hospital. 

These constant comparisons of healthy with unhealthy organs 
are particularly useful in studying those liable to alterations 
in size, such as the liver, kidneys, spleen, and heart. 

There are rarely less than fifteen or twenty bodies examined 
every morning ; and, after this practical lesson, you may listen 
to a lecture on the most interesting cases, by the first living 
pathologist. These advantages, so far, are free of expense ; 
but, by paying some fifteen dollars, you may have a special 
private course with Rokitansky, in v/hich he will go over the 
specimens in the rich museum, and allow you to assist in fost 
mortem examinations. 

Altogether, there are no such advantages for studying this 
department of professional knowledge in any other city in the 
world. 

Unfortunately, he lectures very indistinctly, and in something 
of a drawling tone, so that, unless you are quite at home in 
German, you can scarcely understand him. 

Professor Skoda, as you may be aware, is the author of one 
of the best works in any language on the physical signs of 
diseases of the chest. He combines the profoundly philosophic 



388 APPENDIX. 



observation of Louis with the tact and precision of Piorry. As 
a teacher of auscultation and percussion, I honestly believe him 
to be the first of the age. His theories and classification of 
sounds are somewhat original, and differ in some points from 
those of Laennec and Hope. A few of those upon which the 
former placed emphasis are set down by Skoda as " z/zdetermi- 
nate," and unimportant. 

As a cause of the bronchial sounds in inflammatory diseases, 
and the harshness and resonance of the breathing at the upper 
lobes of the lungs, among the early signs of phthisis, he places 
great stress upon what he terms " consonance." 

The walls of a cavity, by approximating in structure, may 
echo the sound, or vibrate in unison with a note from another 
source : thus a guitar-case consonates with the strings. He 
considers that tubercles or inflammation solidify the walls of 
the air passages, and thus fit them to consonate with the larynx 
and trachea. He is very careful to emphasize " insufficiency" 
of the valves of the heart. 

His treatment is very mild and expectant — too much so, as 
you would say. Ipecacuanha is a staple with him, and he 
rarely bleeds in pneumonia. Like many celebrated physicians 
you will see upon the Continent, his attention seems so riveted 
upon the diagnosis and symptoms of the disease, that the cure 
of the patient appears rather too much like a secondary matter. 
Yet, with his excellencies, you are not forced to copy any little 
defects. 

In addition to the advantage of such a teacher, there are two 
large wards selected and supplied with the most interesting 
cases in the hospital, for the particular purpose of studying 
diseases of the chest, and teaching this speciality. 

The most rare varieties of morbid sound, are here well il- 
lustrated. For the trifling sum of about five dollars, you may 
receive an excellent private course of instruction, from Skoda's 
assistant, with the privilege of leisurely examining patients in 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 389 



these wards. I never attended any thing of the kind so satis- 
factory. 

The Opthalmic School, of Vienna, owes its chief glory to 
the celebrated Beer. Under his pupil, Rosas, it is still pro- 
bably the first in Europe. Professor Rosas delivers most in- 
structive clinical lectures, several times a week, in the theatre 
arranged by Beer. He pays great attention to the constitu- 
tional treatment in affections of the eye. You will be de- 
lighted with some of the arrangements of this part of the 
hospital to promote cleanliness. 

The assistant of Rosa&, for a trifle, gives a capital private 
operatic course, with suitable material, and another on the 
diagnosis of diseases of the eye. 

Medical education is cheap in Austria, costing those who 
graduate, about one-half the fees in Paris. Foreigners, not 
wishing a degree, have access free. The examinations, as in 
France, are distributed through the course of study, which lasts 
five years, of which the two last are devoted specially to prac- 
tical studies. The clinical instruction in the wards is in Latin, 
and the students are obliged every day to converse with the 
professor, by the bedside, in that language. When you re- 
member the immense number of Latin terms in medicine, 
familiar to every student, you will see that it is not so difficult 
for those unaccustomed to this colloquial use of Latin to com- 
prehend it pretty readily. Any one who can read the easier 
authors, can understand it without much difficulty. Skoda 
speaks it with much distinctness and a pleasant accent. 

You will perhaps see no wards so well arranged, for clinical 
instruction, in any hospital, as some of those in that of Vienna. 
Each patient has a student, in the fourth or fifth year of his 
course, who writes out a very minute history of the case, and 
the treatment, in Latin, and places it upon a large sheet of 
paper, which is affixed to a board, at the head of the patient's 
bed, and submits both to the examination, and con'ection, of 



390 APPENDIX. 



the professor, in the presence of a crowa of students, every 
morning. The name of the disease, and several leading par- 
ticulars, are also chalked in large letters, in Latin, on a black 
board, suspended at the head of each patient's bed. 

In general surgery, Vienna is decidedly behind Paris, Berlin, 
or London, and you wdll think the practice of physic somewhat 
too inert and speculative. Yet some of the arrangements for 
giving practical instruction are so excellent, and some branch- 
es are cultivated with such enthusiasm, as to moi-e than atone 
for this. 

The principal hospitals of Berlin are those of the old and 
the new Charite, situated close to each other, in the outskirts 
of the city, and containing, between them, some twelve hun- 
dred beds. 

In the larger Charite there is a very fine operating theatre, 
and the whole arrangement of the wards is admirable. Be- 
sides the clinical professors, there are, attached to the service, 
six intelligent house-physicians and surgeons. I happened to 
have made the acquaintance of one of these, under very favor- 
able circumstances, some months previous to my visit, and 
through his kindness, I was better enabled to appreciate the in- 
ternal economy of these hospitals. In some of their details 
they are superior to any others I saw upon the continent. 

Berlin hospital practice is exceedingly like the English. It 
is much more active and varied than that of Austria or France. 
Both depletion and support are more vigorously affected. You 
will see here, that peculiarity in German practice, almost un- 
known to us; the frequent exhibition of the hydrochlorate, or 
as we used to say, the muriate of ammonia. It is much used 
in chronic bronchitis, and the derangements of the liver and 
spleen, which often follow the intermittents that prevail at 
Berlin. 

Professor Schonlein, of the Charite, is undoubtedly one of 
the first practical physicians of Germany. A translation of 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 391 

his principal work would be a valuable addition to our own. 
medical literature. You may possibly have noticed some of 
his excellent clinical lectures, repoited in some of the English 
medical periodicals. 

The lamented Dieffenbach, so long at the head of Prussian 
surgery, was busily lecturing and operating at the time of my 
visit. He was moderately full in person, and short in stature, 
and the cast of his face, and something in his style of operating, 
reminded me of our own Mott. 

It is a tribute which I should feel delicate in paying to the 
living, to say that, as a stranger, I never had a letter of intro- 
duction to a distinguished member of the profession, so com- 
pletely occupied, that was more kindly honored, than that to 
Baron Dieffenbach. 

Professor Jiingken, the celebrated oculist, and a bold and 
dexterous operator in general surgery, has succeeded him at 
the Charite, 

In compound fractures the limb is sometimes fitted in a box 
of sand, over which a piece of oil-cloth is laid ; the unequal 
pressure of splints is thus avoided, and the inflamed part kept 
cool, and in position. When the wound is healed, and the 
swelling subsided, the limb is done up in starched bandages 
and pasteboard splints. 

Where there is too profuse suppuration, with excellent effect, 
the limb is enveloped in a cloth wet with a solution of the 
nitrate of silver, in the proportion of five grains to the ounce. 

The medical department of the University of Berlin has 
already attained a very high celebrity. Miiller, the first physi- 
ologist of the day, is one of the professors. 

The regulations with regard to. strangers, however, are not 
so liberal as at Paris or Vienna. Unless temporarily by 
courtesy, through letters of introduction, you will not be 
expected to attend either the lectures of the University, or 
visit regularly the hospital, without paying the entrance fees 



392 APPENDIX. 



of an ordinary student. Yet the matured science of the 
former, and the superior medical and surgical practice of the 
latter, are worth the extra trouble, if your attainments in 
German and your time will allow. 

I have written much more than I intended, and I will detain 
you but little longer. 

Owing to the fact that every medical work of any note, 
published in Great Britain or Ireland, is in our own lan- 
guage, and is immediately reprinted here, and owing to the 
republication of their leading medical journals, the great mass 
of the profession in the United States, are almost as famil- 
iar with the character of their hospitals and schools, and the 
opinions of their lecturers and writers, as those of our own 
country. 

Whether from these causes, the similarity in the physicial 
character of our population, or in the practical observing 
genius of the people, our treatment generally resembles theirs, 
much more than that of the continent. But, on this very 
account, we should pay their medical institutions more marked 
attention in our visits abroad. 

It will hardly be news to you, to say that Bartiiolomew's 
and Guy's are the first hospitals in London — that the latter is 
oife of the most richly endowed in the world, having had 
bequeathed to it upward of a million dollars by its founder, 
Thomas Guy, a bookseller, in the reign of Queen Anne, and 
nearly as much more by Thomas Hunt, in 1829. St. Thomas's 
Hospital is close to Guy's, in the Borough. The other general 
hospitals, commencing with the larger, are those of St. George, 
Middlesex, London, Westminster, King's College, LTniversity 
College, and Charing Cross. 

Most of these have connected with them Schools of Medi- 
cine, and a number of professors. Not being state institutions, 
but independent charities, as one means of increasing their 
revenue, they receive pretty liberal fees from the students who 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 393 

attend them. However we might wish they could afford to 
have it otherwise, it would not be honorable for any one who 
has not received his degree, to make more than temporary 
visits to the hospitals, without complying with this regulation. 
To foreign physicians or surgeons, regularly introduced as such 
to any of their medical officers, the courtesy of free admission to 
the hospitals and schools is commonly readily extended. 

In behalf of intimate friends and myself, I can not help 
particularly remembering the kind attentions received, as 
strangers, during several months, at St. Bartholomew's. 

Good letters of introduction, indeed, are more necessary and 
beneficial in England than almost any where else ; and I would 
advise you to be well provided. The English, from custom 
or constitution, are a little more reserved and ceremonious 
than some other nations, upon short or limited acquaintance ; 
but once well introduced either in the social or professional 
circle, you will find them most generously hospitable. 

London has rapidly increased in medical importance of late 
years. You will find there quite a constellation of stars in the 
profession. If you look over any good surgical library, or 
even its list of contributors to the Cyclopedia of Practical Med- 
icine alone, you will be surprised at the number. 

Sir Benjamin Brodie lectures occasionally at St. George's ; 
Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Stanley, Dr. Burrowes, and Dr. Rigby, are 
at St. Bartholomew's ; Mr. Bransby Cooper, Mr. Key, Dr. 
Bright, Dr. Addison, and Dr. Golding Bird, at Guy's ; Mr. 
Green, Mr. South, and Dr. Marshall Hall, at St. Thomas's ; Dr. 
Watson, Dr. Budd, Mr. Arnott, and Mr. Ferguson, at King's 
College ; Mr. Samuel Cooper, Dr. Williams, and Dr. Walshe, 
at University College ; Mr. Shaw and Dr. Latham, at Middle- 
sex, and Dr. Pereira and Mr. Curling, at the London Hospital. 

You will see a greater amount of good practical surgery in 
London than any other city in the world. A population of two 
millions afford a constant supply of material, and the influence 



394 APPENDIX. 



of a few master-spirits has latterly made this a favorite study. 
Cooper, Liston, Brodie, and Lawrence are names that pass 
current every where, and possess a charm even with us across 
the Atlantic. The operating days are different in the different 
hospitals, so that, if you wish to devote yourself particularly to 
surgery, by going from one to another, you can see a large 
number of operations, accompanied with clinical observations, 
almost every day. You must not forget the excellent Opthalmic 
Institution, in Moorfields. 

I would also particularly recommend you to get, through 
some of the members, admission to the exceedingly interesting 
discussions at the Medico-Chirurgical and other societies. 

You will not find the same advantages for studying speciali- 
ties in London as in Paris, and you will miss the private 
courses. But owing, perhaps, to the influence of a free press, 
or the practical genius of the profession, the hospital practice 
of the former will probably strike you as much the best. It is 
more careful and varied. 

The English physicians give a great deal of medicine — too 
much, you will say; but they display great judgment, and ex- 
cellent knowledge of materia medica in prescribing. You can 
depend, too, upon their honesty and veracity. If continental 
practice is too speculative and inactive, that of Great Britain, 
on the other hand, is, perhaps, too heroic, and mercurials are 
more boldly given than with us. Taken as a whole, however, 
it exhibits traits of great excellence. The patients of the Brit- 
ish hospitals will bear to advantage more treatment than their 
southern neighbors. Diseases are very apt early to assume a 
typhoid character, and you will particularly admire their gen- 
erous and judicious management of low forms of fever and 
erysipelas. 

Much to my regret, my stay at Edinburgh was so brief as 
not to allow me to visit satisfactorily her famed medical in- 
stitutions. 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 395 

If other cities, however, have risen in this respect, she has 
never fallen. If you look over the list of great names in Lon- 
don, you will be surprised to find how many of them have 
hailed from the " Modern Athens." 

One of the very best practical schools of medicine in the 
world is, doubtless, that of Dublin. To be convinced of this, 
you have only to reflect upon the really valuable additions it 
has made to the literature of the profession within the last 
twenty years. 

It is hardly necessary for me to mention the names of Colles, 
G-raves, Stokes, Churchhil], Marsh, Kennedy, Harrison, Jacob, 
and others. They have become household words in medicine. 

In the rigid adherence to the ordeal of experience, patient 
observation of medical facts, and the abandonment of empty 
theorizing, you will find the Dublin school equal to that of 
London, and in some things more eclectic and liberal. They 
have introduced here something of the German system of 
clinical instruction. The facilities for the study of anatomy 
are rather better than those of London ; and in obstetrics I 
may record my honest conviction, that Dublin excels any other 
place in Europe. 

Taken as a whole, you will probably meet with no practice 
abroad that will please you better than that of Stevens', the 
Meath, and the Lying-in Hospital. The terms of admission 
are somewhat similar to those of London ; but there being 
fewer strangers at the Irish capital, they naturally receive more 
courtesy and attention. Letters of introduction are far less 
necessary. This may arise from so many of their countrymen 
having found a home with us, or their natural warmth of char- 
acter; but it is generally a passport to the heart of an Irishman, 
in his own country, to say you are an American. There is 
more quiet, and less to distract and weary you, than in London 
or Paris. 

In reply to your inquiries regarding expense, I have striven 



396 APPENDIX. 



to give you a general idea as to medical matters. I found 
living in Vienna, the cheapest of any of the capitals I have 
mentioned. Next to this, you w^ill probably find your outlay 
increase, in different cities, in the following order, Paris, Berlin, 
Dublin, London, the last being the dearest. 

The more careful class of American students spend from five 
or six hundred to a thousand dollars a year in Paris. Some 
of the French and Italians, hov^^ever, manage to exist on two or 
three hundred. 

I may recapitulate, by saying, that in the study of anatomy, 
human and comparative, botany, chemistry, and diagnosis, de- 
formities, diseases of the skin, and some other specialities, of 
the places named, I should prefer Paris ; in pathology, diseases 
of the chest and eye, Vienna ; sensible German practice, Berlin ; 
surgery, London ; obstetrics, and the practice of medicine, 
Dublin. Only a few, in our large cities, confine themselves 
mainly to surgery. To the great mass of the profession, the 
two last branches mentioned are the most important. 

Any medical friend going abroad to obtain knowledge, rather 
for use than show, or not quite familiar with French and Ger-, 
man, I should advise to spend a very considerable portion of 
his time in the Irish capital. The great bulk of American stu- 
dents have, I am confident, lost by confining themselves too 
closely to Paris, and neglecting too much London, Edinburgh, 
and Dublin. I have thus frankly committed myself, with some 
hesitation, but without fear or favor. You know how easy it is 
for a stranger to get slightly exaggerated impressions, and you 
can take the opinions just expressed, for what they are worth. 
They are the result of honest conviction, and only stated for 
the consideration of fellow-laborers in the same arduous calling-, 
in the hope of doing good. 

Ours is a profession of fearful responsibility. The fate of 
dearest relatives, the greatest of earthly blessings, that without 
which all others are vain, nay life itself, are intrusted to our 



FOREIGN HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE. 397 

care. If conscientious — wliatever may be the opinion of the 
world, as to their relative worth — we can not, we dare not 
neglect the best means in our power, to qualify us for the stern 
realities of the bedside. The best school of medicine is that 
which is most practical, and the most important branches are 
those which most directly aid us in the great object of our pro- 
fession — the saving of human life. 

Faithfully yours. 



THE END. 



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